BlueStem Winery in Make Mine Wine

BlueStem Winery is featured in two articles in the Summer 2008 edition of Make Mine Wine magazine, a publication which explores the midwestern wine scene. The first article (starting on page 26) titled Homemade Wine: Make Some Magic!! explores home winemaking using backyard fruits and vegetables and provides step-by-step instructions for making wine. The article also features using WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine kits as an alternative to wine making using fruits and vegetables. The second article features the national and international aspects of BlueStem Winery's business with its sales of wine making ingredients, home brewing supplies and brewing equipment plus the sales of Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine ingredient kits via their website.

BlueStem Winery was also recently featured in the pages of The Insider which is published on Wednesdays as a supplement to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. This article also provided information about BlueStem's business selling homebrewing equipment, homebrew supplies, and everything needed for home wine making including both Cellar Craft kits and WinExpert wine kits. In addition to beer brewing supplies and wine making supplies and its large inventory of Cellar Craft and WinExpert kits, BlueStem also manufactures its own line of beer brewing ingredients kits known as BlueStems Best.

If you are interested in either wine making or beer brewing as a hobby, contact Vern via the BlueStem Winery website.

Feelin' Groovy

Besides marketing wine making supplies, homebrew equipment, home brewing ingredients plus both Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine kits, BlueStem Winery is also a licensed and bonded winery. Our store, which features everything you need for making wine and also home brew supplies, opened in 2004, but our wine making activities did not start until 2006 and our first wine was not available for sale until May of 2007.

Our fourth wine is now ready to be bottled. The labels (pictured at left) have been approved by the government and have been ordered so within just a few weeks this wine will be available. The wine is an Austrian Gruner Veltliner (pronounced Feltleener) and is an off-dry wine. If you cannot remember Gruner Veltliner just think Gru-V and thus the name Feelin' Groovy.

Three more wines (all whites) should be available shortly as they are all ready to be bottled. We are working on the label for number five and need name ideas for six and seven. Number five is an off-dry Riesling and will be called Prairie Fire. These two will join Once in a Blue Moon (a Riesling dessert wine), Red Crescent (a Cabernet Franc dessert wine), and Dark Side (a Chilean Montepulciano dry red).

If you are interested in making great wine at home, contact us a bluestemwine@mchsi.com. BlueStem Winery offers a large selection of both WinExpert and Cellar Craft ingredient kits and we would be more than pleased to help you get started with your new wine making hobby. For several years we carried only the WinExpert kits and were very pleased with the selection and quality of these kits. In 2007 we expanded our inventory to include Cellar Craft kits and have been very pleased with the response our customers have given our selection of Cellar Craft wine kits. Home wine making is a great hobby which has the benefit of providing great wine at a very minimal cost per bottle.

Ford Mustang Owners / Restorers Beware

As anyone who reads my blog articles knows, BlueStem Winery is in the business of wine making for retail sale but we also operate a retail store and web business for marketing winemaking ingredients and homebrew supplies plus the WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine ingredient kits we stock. If you have been following our blog and website you are also aware that we are huge Ford Mustang fans as is my son and his wife. My daughter-in-law's parents are also Mustang fanatics. I have also written blog articles and have published information on my website about the huge F5 tornado that destroyed a third of our town on May 25 of this year.

So what am I blogging about today? Well, quite some time ago while we were rebuilding a Mustang to race at the drag strip, we purchased (on eBay) a pair of motor mounts from a company in Elkton, Virginia. The owner's name is John and that is who we dealt with. Several days after purchasing the parts and after hearing nothing from them I sent an e-mail inquiring about our parts. John took offense that we would even question him about this and proceeded to unleash a series of profane e-mails. As I said, this all occured quite some time ago.

So, a week or so ago I revised my website and put an article on the site about the tornado and how it destroyed my son's home, damaged ours and pretty much destroyed our collection of Mustang automobiles plus several other vehicles.

So, a few days ago, I get a message (through eBay) from John and here is the text:

I am glad to hear that God took care of such horrible people like you. If anyone deserved to have their vehicles destroyed it was you. It is nice to see that karma really works!!

I am not sure which God John is referring to as karma is not necessarily a Christian belief but that is irrelevant. I also find it hard to believe that anyone with any faith at all would even write such a message. I also find it hard to believe that if he has a business worth tending to that he has the time to monitor my website and then take the time to send a message which now tells the world what a low life he really is.

My message: If you are a Ford Mustang enthusiast and want good parts from a reputable parts dealer, you need to look at sources other than Elkton, Virginia from which to purchase your parts. Contact the Western Virginia Better Business Bureau for additional comments from other purchasers as to the way this business conducts business or go on-line to various chat rooms and do a search and see what other Mustang parts purchasers have to say about this dealer. It is an eye opener! So, a word to the wise, if you are a Blue Oval Mustang owner then you need to be aware that one of the industries real dirt bags is out there trying to sell his junk to you. He is probably okay, as long as you never contact him or question any of his less then reputable business tactics and dealings.

If you are looking for home brewing equipment, home brew ingredients, any supplies necessary for home wine making, or either Cellar Craft or WinExpert kits for making wine, then BlueStem Winery is your go to place. You will be treated with respect, your purchase will be well packed and it will be shipped promptly. Any questions you have about either WinExpert kits or Cellar Craft kits or any general questions about home winemaking or home brewing will be answered quickly and professionally.

How does anyone even stay in business treating customers in the way that this business does? Go figure!