NEWSLETTER

Name a Vineyard

April 30, 2008

Grapes are what make our business go. The problem is that as we grow, great grapes are more and more difficult to find... so we've had to change our approach a little and start getting more involved in planting and leasing opportunities. Although it's just for a small part of our production, these vineyards create a new challenge - we have to name them! So here's the deal... come up with a great name that we use and you can pick anyone at Crushpad to take you out to dinner wherever you want... as well as ensure your viticultural immortality. Got cool names? Send them to vineyards@crushpadwine.com. Here's what else is going on...

NYC Open House - Sunday, May 18th
Following up on last year's NYC Open House where we had 350 clients, friends and family, we are coming back! We are holding the event at the same space we had it before (Studio 450 - 450 W. 31st Street) and will be bringing the latest barrel samples and a ridiculously large number of Crushpad staff. If you're a Crushpad client, we'll be pulling your samples so you can see how your winemaking decisions impacted the final wine. While we can't bring out the destemmer and press, we've got everything else. The event goes from 2PM to 6PM. RSVP here.

Crushpad in the News
Speaking of New York, we've been getting a lot of good coverage by media in that neck of the woods including coverage by Bloomberg Magazine where Elin McCoy visited us in San Francisco during our recent Mashup event. Even The Donald is showing us some love with a story in Trump Magazine. With additional coverage by Food & Wine, Men's Journal, Robb Report and others, April was a good month.

1,000 Labels = More Steak
May is month where we cross the 1,000 label mark. That represents 1,000 different wines that our clients have made over the past four years. BUT, we're not there yet. So we've got yet another way to get food... if you're wine is the 1,000th label approved by the TTB then Jenny, Sharon, Hayley and Megan will take you out to whoop it up. To get started on your label, contact Sharon Ludtke (sharon@crushpadwine.com). You may want to download our packaging guide as well. It walks you through your bottle, cork and capsule choices.

2008 Wine Planning Underway
We have started working on the 2008 wine plans. We are doing both 1:1 and group planning sessions. The next group session is at the winery on May 14th. Check out all of the wine planning sessions at our events page. We have also updated the wine planning pages in Crushnet with much more educational content, including a new and improved enowiki and links to winemaking and grape growing educational content. Check out Crushnet's Media Section for the latest videos.

Brrrrrrr, It's Cold
We've received a whole bunch of inquiries about the cold weather - especially the recent frosts that have been seen across the West Coast. The short version is that some vineyards have received no damage at all, while others have some modest damage. Significant frost burn has been seen at a few vineyards. This doesn't really impact quality (although there are those that argue it can improve quality as the vines have less fruit to ripen), but it does impact quantity of fruit available. So if you're thinking of jumping in, sooner is better than later. Check out this video on the effects of frost.

2008 Vineyard Allocations - Many Still Available
With around 50 vineyards this year, we have grown our awesome list of dedicated growers pretty substantially this year. The 2008 list should have been released to everyone by now. If you haven't received it, please contact Dave Gifford (dave@crushpadwine.com) to get a copy. Or just grab a copy here.

Did I say Facebook Friend? I Meant Fan!
Last month I mentioned that we were trying to figure out how to leverage Facebook a bit more... and we've been making a bit of progress. Not much to show yet, but soon. Note that we have moved Crushpad over to a Page instead of a Group. Please become a "fan" of Crushpad even if you've already joined the Crushpad Wine group.



…Michael