CRUSHPAD BLOG

Archive for October, 2008

2008 Grape Harvest Synchronicity

Friday, October 31st, 2008

No sooner did our CEO, Michael Brill announce in Crushpad’s October newsletter that we were harvesting the last two vineyards of the year, then the skies opened up and began to rain — the first meaningful rainfall since spring.  Bob Fosse couldn’t have choreographed it better.   Of course, trick or treaters are now cursing Michael’s [...]

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Posted by Patrick Hurley in Wine Making at Crushpad | No Comments »

Minneapolis Star-Tribune interviews Crushpad customer, Peter Kitchak

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Bill Ward, the wine writer for the Minneapolis Star-Triune posts a nice article on Crushpad customer, Peter Kitchak and his Kitchak Cellars brand.  Peter lives in Minnesota but launched and operates his own award-winning Napa wine brand — Double Gold at the SF International Wine Competition — using our Crushpad Commerce service.

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Posted by Patrick Hurley in Crushpad in the News, Our Customers, Starting a Wine Business | No Comments »

Pinot on the River Festival

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

The 4th annual Pinot on the River Festival was held along the western edge of the Russian River AVA in Forestville last weekend. Autumn is in the vineyard, evidenced by senescence; the aging of vine canopies where leaves change from photosynthesizing green to getting-ready-for-winter’s-slumber orange, yellow and red. The colorful backdrop was perfect for some [...]

Posted by stu in Crushpad Events, Our Customers | No Comments »

Showing Some Love for the 312

Monday, October 27th, 2008

We’re really happy to be back in Chicago again this year, pouring at Pinot Days on Saturday, November 15th at Navy Pier.  We’d love to see you there and share some amazing Sonoma Coast, Russian River and Anderson Valley pinot noirs with you.
We’re also hosting a get together the next day over at our friends [...]

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Posted by Patrick Hurley in Crushpad Events | 2 Comments »

Waits-Mast Cellars Redux

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

We posted some video a few days ago of Crushpad Commerce customers, Brian Mast and Jennifer Waits when they stopped in to sort their 2008 Pinot Noir from La Encantada!
Now Brian is back.  This time being interviewed on VinVillage Radio.  Listen to it here.

Posted by Patrick Hurley in Crushpad in the News, Our Customers, Starting a Wine Business | No Comments »

More Love for Canine Wines

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Congratulations to Crushpad Commerce customers, Matt Raymond and Kelly Naughtin and their Canine Wines brand. We wrote about them a few months back when they were featured in the Contra Costa Times. Now the American Winery site is showing them some love with a nice post here
Canine Wines is a great story. With the [...]

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Posted by Patrick Hurley in Crushpad in the News, Starting a Wine Business, Wine 2.0, Wine Making Videos | No Comments »

Waits-Mast Family Cellars

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

2008 Pinot Noir from La Encantada
Crushpad Commerce members Brian Mast and Jennifer Waits from Waits-Mast Family Cellars sort their 2008 Pinot Noir from La Encantada!
You can learn more about their wines here: http://www.waitsmast.com/

Posted by alan in Our Customers, Starting a Wine Business, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Sip Some Pinot With Us at the Pinot on the River Festival

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

• Late October in sunny Northern California.
• A Sunday day trip to the Russian River Valley.
• Tasting from 100 small production artisinal Pinot Noir producers.
If that sounds like a day well spent — and who could honestly argue otherwise? — trek up to Forestville on Sunday, 10/24 and join Crushpad for the Pinot on the [...]

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Posted by Patrick Hurley in Crushpad Events | No Comments »

Crush Camps - Get your Grape On!

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

Stu leads the volunteer cellar rats through all of the winemaking steps in a single visit to Crushpad
Each morning at 10am, Crushpad friends and family cross the fermentation threshold to take part in Crushcamp. This winemaking overview attempts to squeeze a semester at UC Davis into 3-hours; with grapes stains from splatter, spatter, smear and [...]

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Posted by alan in Crushpad Events, Wine Making Videos | No Comments »

Crushing Grapes the Old Fashioned Way

Friday, October 10th, 2008

Yesterday Kristen, one of our new winery staff members, got the honors of doing a little old fashioned grape stomping.  This particular bin of grenache had some whole stem inclusion and we wanted to break up those berries that didn’t break during punchdowns.

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Posted by noah in Wine Making Team, Wine Making Videos, Wine Making at Crushpad | No Comments »

Barrel Making 101

Friday, October 10th, 2008

In wine making, barrels are kind of the unsung heroes.  Though easily taken for granted, they’re quite important to achieving the characteristics you want in your finished wine — a fact that my recent trip to the Radoux cooperage up in Santa Rosa only reinforced. These guys are real craftsmen. After the jump, [...]

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Posted by victoria in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Winemaker’s Minute Episode #26 - Deciding When to Pick a Vineyard

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

After a long season the critical decision of when to pick the fruit involves a lot of variables
Deciding when to pick wine grapes is a very complex process. We evaluate both analytical ripeness and physiological ripeness when making pick decisions. Ideally the grapes would be physiologically ripe at the exact moment the sugars and acids [...]

Posted by alan in Vineyards, Wine Making Videos | No Comments »

Winemaker’s Minute Episode #25 Getting Initial TA, pH, and Brix Numbers

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Knowing the chemical makeup of your grapes on harvest day is critical to getting your wine started properly.
A lot of thought and debate goes into when you pick a vineyard but once those grapes hit the winery, you have to react to what mother nature and the hard working vineyard crew delivered. This means that [...]

Posted by alan in Wine Making Videos | No Comments »

How Do You Cool Off a Hot Fermentation?

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

Ferment temperatures are key to hitting your stylistic goals, both for aromas, and flavors. Making small batches of wine presents a set of challenges not faced by massive wineries where they have huge temperature-controlled vats. Your ferment temperature needs to be hot enough to get the level of extraction you want but if you let [...]

Posted by alan in Wine Making Videos, Wine Making at Crushpad | No Comments »