It's a Wrap

October 10 , 2008 You are no doubt impressed as I am that this newsletter went out before midnight on the last day of the month. Well, that's because today we are going to harvest our last two vineyards of the year. With cold and rain on its way, it's not a day too soon. We're still working through another 100 fermentations or so, but with our very high rate of completed fermentations this year (yeah!), we should have pretty much everything put to bed by Thanksgiving. If you can get to the winery, please stop by and taste some of this stuff that we keep raving about. And if anyone knows why the DOW keeps going wild in the last 10 minutes of the day, please let me know. Here's what's happening...

Last Call for 2008 Cabernet As I mentioned, we're going to get our last fruit today from River Run and Shikon vineyards in Napa. With the yields we're expecting, we should have a buffer of 2-3 barrels for each. So if you've been distracted by non-winemaking activities, this is your last time to jump in on the 2008 vintage with some great Napa Cab. The fruit will be in the cold room and we can process it Friday or Saturday. Contact Dave Gifford (dave@crushpadwine.com) if interested.

First Call for 2008 Adoptions We've been going through all of the 2008 barrels and identifying the best extra barrels for the adoption program. This is the first year that we've ever had Pinot Noir adoption barrels (I got a little crazy on Pinot this year). But there's also Cab, Syrah, Zin, and lots of other varietals. Again, contact Dave Gifford (dave@crushpadwine.com) if you want to get another barrel or you just don't want to wait for 2009 to get started.

We're XL in Japan OK, I admit it. I'm a sucker for anything that's got Japanese writing on it.  Somehow it makes me feel more worldly and somewhat futuristic... maybe it's watching Blade Runner one too many times. In any case, we finally got our Crushpad Japan shirts and they're very cool. If you want to wear a shirt that makes you feel #1 happy friendship forever, check them out on the Crushpad Gear shop.

We're XL in Chicago as Well - Chicago Open House & Pinot Days I'm also a sucker for deep dish pizza, sad sack baseball franchises and wind. If you're around on the week of November 15th/16th, please track us down at Pinot Days (Saturday) and then at our Chicago Open House (Sunday) which we are holding at Just Grapes. We expect a full house and word is that both Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi will be there. I commit to you that we will get the event on video and we will release it! If you're a commerce member and you want to pour at the event, email Hayden Moulds (hayden@crushpadwine.com).

Need Your Wine in Time for Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is less than a month away, so if you plan to serve some of your wine alongside the giblets and gravy, you'll need to place your orders soon. Ground shipped orders must be received by 11/14 and 2-Day Express orders by 11/21 to ensure delivery by Thanksgiving. See the complete holiday shipping schedule. Remember that you can now place your requests online through Crushpad Cellar. Log in to your Crushnet account, click the "Wines" tab, and then click the "My Cellar" link.  That will display all of your wines that are ready to be shipped.

Holiday Gift Ideas November and December are pretty slow months around the winery - especially for Dave and Alan. When the rest of the wine industry is selling tons and tons of wine for the holidays, we're catching up on things like winter surfing and ridiculous uses of time like helping our kids with homework! Well, put the board away and call the nanny, because we'd love to find some interesting gift ideas. We've got Fusebox, which is an awesome gift. You can also give a barrel. But we need more ideas. So if you've got any, drop me an email at michael@crushpadwine.com. If it's a new idea and cool, we'll use it and send you a Crushpad jacket.

Crushpad for Holiday Parties This year, we've started opening up Crushpad for more corporate events. We've run events for 20 to about 1200 people so far. The events range from blending sessions to full-on company shindigs with valet parking, catered food and bands. If you're in the mood and you don't have a place to have a party, contact Hayden Moulds (hayden@crushpadwine.com).

Congratulations on the launch of Robleon Wines Robleon Wines

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