NEWSLETTER
Harvest 2006 is Almost Here
July 31, 2006Last month I was saying something about this being a late year and then we get a month of non-stop, record-setting sunshine! While I don't think it'll be an early year, it's certainly caught up from a month ago. From the looks of things, 2006 is an excellent vintage in the making. At the winery, we're running 100 miles per hour doing 100 things in preparation for our largest harvest yet. Some of the big projects...
2006 Crushpad Equity Financing
In the next few weeks, we are putting out an equity finance offering to fuel our rapid growth. To our credit and the support of 1500+ great customers (most of you!), we have built the fastest growth ultra-premium winery in the history of the industry with very modest capital. Last year we did a round of equity financing and this year we did a small debt financing - both of which were filled almost entirely by customers. Many of you have asked about participation in our next equity financing... so here you have it. I have a list of folks who've expressed interest in the offering. If you would also like to be on that list please shoot me an email at michael@crushpadwine.com. (Lawyerspeak: This announcement is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. The offer is made only by the Private Offering Memorandum and related Business Plan. Copies of the Private Offering Memorandum and related Business Plan may be obtained only in those States where the issuer may legally offer these securities in compliance with the securities laws of such State. )
Crushnet Beta Starts August 3nd
Starting on Wednesday, we're entering our beta test of Crushnet. Crushnet is our online community for winemaking and, well, it took us a few months more than we thought to put it together. Even now I feel like there are a million things we want to get in there, but in the worlds of Voltaire: perfect is the enemy of the good... so it's going live! It will allow you to create, find and manage winemaking groups; track your wine progress; and share your experience with others. Look for a special notice later this week.
Crushpad Cam is on our T1
We finally got our T1 installed and you'll notice that the Crushpad Cam (go to www.crushpadwine.com and click on Crushpad Cam) is much more stable and we've increased the resolution to make the main area more visible. With all of our bandwidth, we're adding the Bottle Cam which will then transition to my favorite – the Sort Cam – in early September. Remember that will these cams, you can type in questions and we see those on large LCD displays. We can then answer back to the Cam . It's a lot of fun, especially when multiple people are interacting online.
Getting Vertical
Crushpad now has space on three floors in the building... over 16,000 square feet. One of the challenges of being in the city is that you can't just spread out... you kind of go wherever there is space. In our case, we now have proper offices on the 2 nd floor ("proper" means that we don't have forklifts running into our desks all day long). It's a little weird not being surrounded by the smells and sounds all day long, but it's only 14 steps away and there sure is a lot more space up here.
Crushpad Commerce Turns 20
We now have 20 people/groups who are taking their wine passions pro to create their own commercial wine brands. If you haven't checked out Crushpad Commerce lately, go to www.crushpadwine.com/crushcomm_overview.php or drop Dave Gifford (dave@crushpadwine.com) an email to see what it's about. We're finally reaching critical mass where we can start hire dedicated resources to help get these commercial brands to market.
Congrats to Vie Winery
One of first Crushpad Commerce wineries just picked up a gold medal for their 2004 Las Madres syrah at West Coast Wine Competition. Vie Winery is headed up by Bryan Kane and is one of our largest Crushpad Commerce members and is making a whole bunch of interesting Rhone-inspired wines and a little zin thrown in for good measure. Check out their website and get on their mailing list because their 2004s sold out very quickly.
Pre-Harvest Bottling – Last Call
We will be finishing up bottling in August and then putting the bottling line away until the end of November. We haven't quite hit the 200 mark for labels, but we have submitted about 0.2% of the 68,000 labels processed by the Federal government this year. Right now, we're cranking on labels for 2005 whites and pinots, as well as finishing up 2004 cabs and merlots. Jenny Doll (jenny@crushpadwine.com) is the person to talk to if you want to get going on your packaging.
Blending Kit Update
Many of you have been asking when you can do blending for your 2005 cabs and syrahs. We are just finishing up the Blending Kits and will ship them out after harvest when it cools down. Like everything else we're trying to, we want to make the blending experience both fun and highly valuable by giving you professional-level tools and instruction. One thing we need though is a cleverer name for the whole thing. Crushpad Blending Kit is, well, kind of boring. My idea was shot down by everyone: it comes in a box and it's for blending... so I called it Fusebox. Get it? I can't believe they shot it down. So if you've got something better, send me some ideas and I'll get you something cool in return for the winning idea.
Harvest 2006: Now's the Time To Get Going
Dave Gifford (dave@crushpadwine.com, 415-864-4232) is the guy to talk to if you want to get in on making wine this year. Some vineyards are sold out, but we still have an embarrassingly great range of vineyards to choose from. Harvest is fast approaching, so figure it out soon so we can get to making wine!
...Michael