The First Grapes of 2008
September 2, 2008
Yeah, I know it's not August but I reckoned you'd rather be enjoying Labor Day, so I waited. After some really crazy early season weather, we have been dry and warm for months - perfect weather in what everyone is predicting to be the best quality harvest in our short existence. With Sauvignon Blanc already in the door, we only have one problem... we're living in denial. The bottling line is still up, the fermentation floor is taken up by barrels and people are not nearly stressed out enough. That will change this week when we bring in the first Pinot Noir from Russian River and we're off to the races. This is the season that we look forward to all year. Despite (or perhaps because of) the intensity, long hours and physical work, we're really, really thankful that we do this for a living. Here's what's up...
Crush Camps Starting In September For our clients, this year we are starting Crush Camps: half-day and full-day sessions that cover every step of making wine, including processing your own fruit. Last year we had hundreds of people fly across the country and their winery experience was a little chaotic and, well, limited. We welcome our clients to spend as much time as possible helping out during crush (some actually sign up for 3 weeks of hard labor!), and Crush Camps are a more structured and reasonable way to do this. If you're interested, shoot Stu Ake an email at stuart@crushpadwine.com. Here is a link to last year's trial run.
Last Minute Vineyards Added As we get closer to harvest, bits and pieces of vineyards free up and when it's great stuff, we jump on it. Just in the past few weeks we have added Durell Vineyard Chardonnay and Paramelee Hill Syrah from Sonoma - google those and you'll see why we're excited. We also, as of today, just added Cavedale Vineyard Cabernet and Merlot. This is a Mount Veeder site (on the west-facing Sonoma side) at 2000 feet elevation. I tried a 2006 barrel sample and mistook it for a concentrated Petite Sirah. I'm going out on a limb and projecting that this will make the darkest, most structured wine of the season. If you missed out on Godspeed and want some Mount Veeder muscle, contact Dave Gifford (dave@crushpadwine.com).
Commerce Workshop - Saturday, September 20th Crushpad is hosting its annual Crushpad Commerce Workshop. This year the focus is on sales and marketing - how to build up revenue for a small wine brand. This year we're also bringing the event off-site to the Lodge at Sonoma. If you're currently a Crushpad Commerce member or thinking about it, you should definitely go to this event. Find out more here.
Chocolate Seizure - September 11th, 6PM We all love wine and chocolate, but sometimes it's a bit difficult matching the two. But, hey, we've got a winery and some of the best chocolatiers in country right in our backyard. So we've gotten a bunch of them together with our winemakers to create the ultimate wine for chocolate. And here's where you come in... you will help the team decide on the final blend by tasting chocolate from numerous high-end chocolatiers alongside the blends that the team has created. Once the winner has been selected and wine has been blended and aged, you will receive a bottle of the winner. A bottle called "Chocolate Seizure." Tickets are $40 and can be purchased here.
Web 2.0 and Wine 2.0 in NYC, September 17th and 18th What's the most ridiculous thing I could do in mid-September, just as grapes are coming in? How about flying to New York for three days. In any case, we are presenting at Web 2.0 on the 17th on the "People Powered Products" panel and then at Wine 2.0 on the 18th where we will be showing off the new version of Crushnet (which I can't tell about without killing you and since I have no capability or desire to kill you over the internet, I'll keep my mouth shut for now). If anyone's got an idea for an offline in NYC on the 16th, let me know at michael@crushpadwine.com.
Now's a Very Good Time to Sign Up for 2008 Harvest has begun and we'll start to see fruit coming fast and furious in the near future. Now's the time to get in on harvest 2008 - undoubtedly the best harvest in our five year history. Contact Dave Gifford (dave@crushpadwine.com) to get started.
Harvest Stomp - Saturday, September 6th in Napa Valley OK, Napa Valley Grape Growers is hosting their annual Harvest Stop - a harvest party Napa style and Crushpad is a sponsor this year. This is a great opportunity to meet the folks that grow great fruit while knocking down some serious Napa Valley wines and nosh like grilled oysters and whole pigs. It's from 5PM to 9PM in Rutherford. Come on out, join me and show the Crushpad colors (swing by and we'll get you a shiny new t-shirt) and experience harvest the Napa way! Sign up at the Harvest Stomp website (WARNING: there is some 'toe tapping classic country tunes' that play automatically when you visit the site... don't say I didn't warn you). Shoot me an email at michael@crushpadwine.com if you are going.
Wine Plans - Last Call To Get Them Done An extremely important part of making wine is trying to figure out what style of wine you want to make. The way we do that is with the wine planning session with a winemaker. You should have been contacted to start your plan. If you haven't please contact winery@crushpadwine.com and we'll get you going.
Pictures from Drink Brill's Wine Dinner On August 22nd & 23rd, we hosted a dinner with wine pairings from my cellar. Check out the damage
Crushpad Has a Blog... Finally Yeah, it's a little silly that we haven't had an active company blog. But we've got one now! Crushpad Blog
Community Crush Now Has Five Neighborhoods Here's a fun program for San Francisco residents not ready to jump into a barrel yet. Community Crush
