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Given this is our first month of using DHL to ship our packages throughout Alberta we expected some integration challenges. Well it has come to our attention that the emails which DHL’s system send out are not in a very user friendly format (and actually may look like spam).

The emails will reaching your inbox be titled “EasyShip 2.0 Shipment Notification” and will include your tracking details in an attachment. You can then visit the DHL.ca website to check on your delivery status.

If you miss your delivery, please phone DHL 1-800-CALL-DHL (1-800-225-5345) to schedule a re-delivery.

We are working right now to ensure that information gets to all of our members in a more convenient format, but we’d like to apologize for the potential confusion this has caused.

The good news is, your packages are being sent out and will arrive later this week (starting tomorrow) or at the latest early next week!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to let us know at thecellar@winecollective.ca

June’s deliveries will start next week and for many of you in Calgary, there may be some changes to the shipping procedures.

DHL will handle a majority of the packages to be delivered in June. If your package is being shipped via DHL you will receive an emailed tracking number once it is shipped.

That tracking number will inform you when your package is scheduled to be delivered. It also means that the package is being processed and is on its way to you! So if you have any last minute changes, please contact DHL directly, with your tracking number, to reschedule delivery.

If you had previously arranged to pick-up your package at one of two Willow Park Wines & Spirits locations in Calgary, they will be waiting for you by 5pm on Friday June 10th.

DHL will attempt delivery three times (on three different days) which should make it easier to receive your wine!  If you miss three delivery attempts your package will go to DHL’s closest warehouse and can be picked up from there. Someone over 18 must be home to sign for the delivery. DHL can not leave a package at the front door.

Packages will go out starting on Monday June 13th and we expect to be done with shipments on Monday June 20th.

Also, expect to see new WineCollective packaging. We’ve made the shipments “bomb proof” to ensure your wine is untouched when it arrives!  Stay tuned for more information about our new customized packages!

Fantastic.

From me to you. Jamie is doing some amazing work out of NYC. I’d highly recommend checking out more of her work.

After enjoying substantial growth in Calgary, WineCollective is pleased to announced that starting immediately, we now have the ability to ship anywhere in Alberta! We’re excited about finally being able to welcome people in Edmonton, Red Deer and other Alberta cities to the WineCollective.

There will continue to be changes to the site over the next few weeks but this is what is happening:

• There are now three base pricing zones. Zone one is Calgary and Lethbridge. Zone two is Edmonton and Red Deer. Zone three is Grande Prairie and Medicine Hat. We can ship outside the base pricing zones to rural areas, however additional shipping charges may apply depending on the location.
• All shipping outside of Calgary (and some inside Calgary) will be conducted by DHL. Members that have a package shipped via DHL will receive an email with their tracking number and delivery date once the order has been shipped.
• Prices have been revised to take into account the location where the package will be shipped.
• Great news for current members: we guarantee there won’t be any changes to the prices of your packages for three months as you are grandfathered into the new system.

If anyone has any questions about the new service, the website or just generally please let us know.

We here at WineCollective are very happy to introduce BlackSquare Inc. to our members.  BlackSquare is the parent company to WineCollective and up to this point, it has gone unnoticed, a silent partner. We like to describe BlackSquare as a hybrid tech company – we have a technology side of the business and then we have a “real” side where we interact with businesses and customers through our strategic partner Willow Park Wines & Spirits

The WineCollective.ca website is an important business line to BlackSquare. As most of you reading this know, it operates as the online engine for an educational wine club in Alberta. What probably isn’t as well understood is that over the past two years we have been developing the proprietary technology behind the WineCollective.ca site. The technology that allows us to show all of the wines received, enable community rankings and also integrate essential back-end features such as logistics, accounting and operational supply issues.

That technology is called Vineyard and is another element of the BlackSquare business. Our goal is to take this product which we have refined under the WineCollective.ca banner and export it directly to wineries globally who have the need for a custom built solution to solve their e-commerce problems. We know it works because we use it!

The third leg of the BlackSquare business model is Tannic. Launching soon, Tannic.ca is the first of its kind in North America.  It is an invitation only portal for super-premium and collectable wines & spirits in Alberta. Members can order from a small, curated and constantly rotating selection of the finest wines & spirits at prices far better than what can be achieved through conventional retail channels. We invite any of our current WineCollective members who are interested in learning more about Tannic and potentially applying for a membership to visit Tannic.ca within the next few weeks for the chance to join up before it goes live.

Stay tuned for a lot more news on BlackSquare, and all of our business lines over the next few months. WineCollective members should expect some extremely exciting news in early May and get ready for more technological and design improvments to the site in the coming months!

That is one old stove. Maybe it’s time for a new one?

Since launching just over two years ago, the technology that WineCollective has been running on has remained mostly unchanged. A lot has changed in that time, and we’ve placed a lot of bandaids on keeping everything up to date. Today we’re taking our first steps into version two.

For the most part you shouldn’t notice too many differences, however we’ll be rolling out some improvements over the next little while. In the meantime a few “quirks” you may notice:

1. You’ll need to reset your password (for security reasons we’ve had to reset everyone – sorry)
2. My Wines and history of each wine you’ve received is currently offline, yet will be returning shortly.
3. There might be a few bugs.

Our main goal with this new progressive release is to really tighten up our entire experience. We hope in the meantime you hang tight and let us know of any issues that you might run into.

Thanks for your patience, and continued support!

PS. I took this photo of the “Enterprise” stove while vacationing in Revelstoke (I went paragliding!). You just don’t see design like that anymore.