Posted Date: 2nd June, 2010   Time: 1:17p.m.

Grapes 4 U is a hobby shop where people can come and make their own wine from a broad selection of wine kits. There are probably a thousand such establishments in Canada, primarily in B.C. and Ontario. The signature periodical in our industry is WineMaker Magazine. WineMaker holds an annual competition in which amateur vintners can have their wines appraised by professional judges. This year, from April 16 to 18, in Manchester, Vermont, 4508 bottles of wine were judged. This represented the largest and most diverse collection of amateur wines ever assembled under one roof. In fact, this year’s competition was the largest wine competition of its kind in the world. Entries were sent from competitors in all 50 states, 8 Canadian provinces and countries as far away as Spain, Turkey and Australia. Wines were examined using a 20 point wine scale developed at the University of California – Davis, evaluating appearance, aroma, taste, aftertaste and overall impression. Kit wines competed alongside fresh-grape entries in this blind tasting. Entries were awarded gold, silver, bronze and best-of-show medals based on the average score given by the judging panel. The U-Vint of the Year award was given to the winemaking shop whose customers outperformed other similar stores. Grapes 4 U submitted 107 bottles from its clientele. We were awarded a total of 32 medals, 6 gold, 11 silver and 15 bronze. The majority of the wines judged were made from kits. A huge honour which we also won was the best-of-show for all wines made from kit. To top it all off, an even bigger prize, we were also designated as U-Vint of the year.
We feel this is an exceptional international accomplishment for a little company from Ladner.