Wine Bubbles

November 25, 2008

Three days in a row of an up-market: It's official, the economy is on the rebound and it's time to open the bubbly! Right. Actually, I don't know if it's the holiday season, the rocking 2008 wines we have in barrel, or my antidepressants kicking in, but I'm actually feeling very good about being in the wine business. I figure if the 21st Amendment helped Americans survive the Great Depression, a few barrels of wine can get us through this mess. Here's what's up...

What's Next in Winemaking? OK, the wines are in barrel. How's do they look? How's my wine? What comes next? If you have those questions then this video is for you. We are getting malos finished, doing initial rackings and then sitting down and evaluating all of the wines in December and January. We'll then write up our complete thoughts and suggestions for how to evolve the wine to achieve your goals. We'll then get samples out to everyone when we do our annual Mashup (where we pull everyone's barrel samples to try and share at the winery) in February/early March. Of course, if you want to swing by the winery to see how things are looking, drop an email to Dave or Alan and they'll help you track down your barrel.

Join us for Joanne Weir Book Launch Party, December 5th We're proud to be hosting the release party for the book Wine Country Cooking by Joanne Weir. Joanne is a James Beard Award winning author, television personality and teacher extraordinaire. This will be a great opportunity to get a signed cookbook and snack on some of the recipes from her newest book. The event is from 6:30 to 8:30PM on Friday, December 5th. Space is limited. Come and join us.

San Francisco Wine Association Launch Party, December 11th One of the most exciting things we've seen lately is the creation of the San Francisco Wine Association. Founded by longtime Crushpad clients John and Sharol Tarabini, the SFWA is a group dedicated to small producers in San Francisco (many of whom make wine with us). Through their events and promotional work, I fully expect the SFWA to become the premier champion of the passionate, small producers we see emerging in San Francisco. Oh, and their launch party is Thursday, December 11th from 5:30 to 8:00PM at Crushpad.

Ship Your Personal Wine as Gifts for the Holidays The holidays are coming fast. Yeah, you could get someone a 50%-off foot massager, but wouldn't a gift of your own wine be much better? We are making it very easy this year to ship wine to multiple recipients. Just give us a file of recipients, any card you want in the shipment, and we'll do the rest. Start here for more information. If you have a smaller number of recipients, you can do it all online from the My Cellar link under My Wines in Crushnet. Find out more information here.

Fusebox for the Holidays Just a reminder that Fusebox is a popular holiday gift (and it's now showing up in all of the gift guides). It's great present for the wine enthusiast who isn't getting a barrel from you! Check out Fusebox.

2008 Adoptions Now Through Malos &l Looking Great We've got most of the 2008 adoptions all through malolactic fermentation, sulfured up and resting. We've gone through all of the 2008 barrels and identified the best extra barrels for the adoption program - especially Cabs and Pinots. 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.

Crushpad for Holiday Parties Need a cool place for a holiday event? Contact Hayden Moulds (hayden@crushpadwine.com).

Welcome to Two New Family Wineries Loos Family Wines Aver Family Vineyards

A Special Partner Offer You may have noticed that we don't often partner up with other companies and blast you with offers. We're going to start slowly and see how it goes because people seem to like us and that's really only because of you!

So if you live around San Francisco and you've run out of climate-controlled wine storage, then the San Francisco Wine Center is a great choice. They are offering Crushpad clients 20% off pre-paid storage. Check it out.