NEWSLETTER
Harvest Is Around The Corner!
May 31, 2007I heard the H-word three times today (H as in Harvest)... mostly some variant of "Harvest is only three months away, how are we going to get everything done!?" This will be our fourth harvest and with over 500 tons (1000+ barrels) in the plans, we still have quite a bit of work to do on the facility to be ready... but with our new 7,000 sq ft barrel room coming on board in July and lots of new equipment right about the same time, we'll have the full month of August to do our dry runs and then we're off to the races. I'll be brief this month, but here are some of the highlights...
Open House Reminder – Saturday, June 16, 2PM – 6PM
Please attend our 2007 Open House at our new facility at 2573 3rd Street in San Francisco's Dogpatch. Tom is furiously putting in ceilings and counters and promises to have everything done by the 15th (at midnight). As at previous events, we'll be busting out barrel samples and some finished wines (including an awesome late harvest pinot blanc from 2005). Hayden's responsible for food, so it should be tasty. Please go to crushpadwine.com/sfrsvp.php to RSVP. Note that if you have RSVP'd and have not received a confirmation, please send Hayden Moulds (hayden@crushpadwine.com) an email to reconfirm.
Wine Plans are Underway
If you are making wine in 2007 and you have not begun your wine plans, you need to get started. This year we have a document - "The Wine Plan Companion" to help you get started and we are also having bi-weekly wine planning sessions at the winery. But you can always schedule a 1:1 wine planning session by sending an email to winery@crushpadwine.com. Mike Zitzlaff and his merry crew of winemakers will work with you to craft your wine plans well ahead of harvest.
Crushpad Goes Live
After an extended beta period, we finally put up the production version of Crushnet. Crushnet is the online community for winemaking and there are many new capabilities including video, pictures, matching and a whole lot more. With our fancy new architecture, we will also be introducing new capabilities on a more regular basis now. If you haven't signed up yet, please do. It's free, it's fun and, well, we worked really hard on it!
Check Us Out at Wine 2.0
Interested in seeing what some of the most innovative wine companies are doing with technology? Then on June 1 at 5PM, you should head to SOMA and check out Wine 2.0. There are a lot of cool companies that are using technology to empower wine enthusiasts to find new wines and share more of their experiences with like minded folks. Crushpad will be joining them in a roundtable that will be followed by a general networking event. Go!
Wine Shipping Window is Closing
As we move through spring into summer, the weather gets too warm to ship large amounts of wine economically. So if you have wine that you would like shipped to you, please contact our shipping director Buck Teal (buck@crushpadwine.com). There's no magic end-date as it's a function of the weather, but summer officially starts in 3 weeks! Also remember that if you live anywhere close to NYC, we have a special deal with Vintage Wine Warehouse (www.vintagewinewarehouse.com) that will lower the cost of shipment and provide a long-term storage option as well.
2007 Allocations Continue
This has been a great year for us so far with allocations. We are already about 2/3 towards our goal and still have fruit from the majority of our vineyards available. We have also just added a few more vineyards, including two pinot noir vineyards in Willamette Valley and our second cabernet source in Washington's Red Mountain. So far 2007 is looking pretty darn good across the West Coast. The dry winter and spring have created conditions for relatively low yields and that means more concentration for the wine. It's too early to tell exactly what sort of year it will be but if I were a bettin' man.... Contact Dave Gifford (dave@crushpadwine.com) for more info.
Crushpad Turns 30
We just hired our 30th employee... that's up from 12 a year ago! We're catching up on all the things that we said we were going to do and although sometimes it feels like we need 60 people, we're just happy to be able to bring on so many talented, dedicated people who share the same passion for wine and have the drive for changing the way the wine industry works. You'll see a lot of new people around the winery so please introduce yourself when you're around.
...Michael