NEWSLETTER

140 down, 60 to go

October 24, 2005

With a brief break before the flurry of grapes, I wanted to give everyone an update on where we are.  We have worked through just about 2/3 of our fruit so far.  Next week we'll see the bulk of the remaining fruit and then a few stragglers into early November, weather permitting.  We're managing pretty well but are bursting at the seams with all the fruit we've got in various stages of crushing, fermentation, pressing and malos.  It's been one of biggest harvests in recent history with the excellent quality associated with good harvests.  Many people are comparing this year to 1994 and 2001.  Here are a few things that are going on:

October is Hug Your Harvest Intern Month
Our harvest interns have been working non-stop for almost two months, putting in 80-100 hour weeks, and creating numerous “harvest widow(ers)” – all in the name of making great wine.  If you see a harvest intern (easily identifiable by their fermenting pants and bleary eyes), please hug them… they need it.

End Of Year Package Design Started
For those of you with 2004 zins, syrahs and later-bottled pinots and chards, we need to get packaging designed and labels printed by the end of November.   If you have not contacted Jenny yet, please do so at jenny@crushpadwine.com.  We'll be bottling late November through late December and should get everything done in time for the holidays.

Crushpad Media Coverage Continues
Following on the heels of last month's feature story in USA Today, Crushpad will be featured in Time Magazine, New York Times Magazine, Associated Press, Touring & Tasting Magazine and several others.  We're also being featured on local radio and television stations.  We're too busy making wine to update the website with all the press, but check the site soon.

Personalize Your Barrel
One customer had recently taped a picture of her dog to her barrel and it looked so cool that I thought it would be interesting to have everyone do that!  In a crowded barrel room, it's a good reminder why we're here.  So if you're a customer making wine with us, feel free to mail us or drop by a picture or artwork or whatever and we'll get it on your barrel after harvest.  Note that things can get wet and lost, but we'll do our best to keep it affixed.

Great 2005 Cab & Syrah (and a few others) still available
We went really long on some of Napa's highest quality cab and some of Santa Barbara's highest quality syrah and although we have over a hundred folks making cab and syrah we still have vineyards with a few barrels available.  These are coming in over the next two weeks and are being put up for “adoption.”  Check out the website for more details.

Volunteers: A Busy October Turns Into a Busy November
Our volunteers have been a great help, enabling us get home before 2AM from time to time.  We're be receiving fruit through early November (how crazy is that) and will need help a few weeks longer than expected.  If you're interested in volunteering and haven't done so already, email volunteer@crushpadwine.com and we'll put you on the list.

Oh, and if your name is David Liu, please stop bringing donuts.

...Michael