Crushpad Blog

Shaker Table Gently Bounces Cabernet

noah — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:05:09 +0000

Here a quick video taken from the end of the shaker table today of some absolutely primo Neal Vineyard Cabernet from Napa. The shaker table is essentially a second sorting line, in addition to the conveyor belt line, that allows sorters to pull out jacks (the little green stem things) and sunburned berries after the clusters have been destemmed. It is only used on thick skinned grapes like Cabernet because it would tend to mangle thinner skinned varietals like Pinot Noir. The small Cab berries just bounce merrily down the line and into the t-bin to begin fermentation.

This fruit was so pristine it didn’t really need the second sort. The grapes almost look like blueberries in the bin.

The 2009 Fusebox Blend-Off Championships

noah — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:23:14 +0000

You’ve heard of cookoffs, playoffs and at the ballot box even runoffs. This year we’re introducing a new kind of off and it’s a blend-off. That’s right a blend-off. As in a winemaking blendoff between ten illustrious wine bloggers. We hereby give you the first annual 2009 fusebox blend-off competition.

We’ve armed each of these dynamic competitors with one of our new at-home blending kits called fusebox create. The fusebox create comes with all of the components they will need to create their own bordeaux-styled blends including a guidebook, a graduated cylinder, pipettes, placemats and of course high-end Napa wines. Participants in the blend-off will use 2007 Cabernet, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc to experiment, tinker and make their perfect blends. Then, they’ll design a label for their new masterpiece by using Crushpad’s new online wine label designer. After they’ve finished, they’ll submit to us their final blend percentages and label designs to be judged. On November 9, the Crushpad winemaking team will pick a winner for the best tasting blend and our designers will choose one for the best label design.

In addition to the bragging rights of being champ of the inaugural fusebox blendoff and a stylish new trophy badge for their blogs, the winners will get a case of their own custom blended and custom labeled cuvée.

That is the cool thing about fusebox create; you can actually make your own wine. With this version of fusebox you can order custom cases of your wine after you’ve finished the blending session. The fusebox itself makes a great holiday gift but bottles of your own custom wine would make unique, high quality presents too.

Make sure to add these important bloggers to your daily reads if you don’t already follow them. Let’s see who’s the best of the best. (There are only 9 blogs listed here but two bloggers, Amy and Joe, on Another Wine Blog are competing separately.)

Dirty South	http://www.dirtysouthwine.com/
Pulling the Cork	http://pullingthecork.com/
Another Wine Blog	http://www.anotherwineblog.com/
A Good Time With Wine	http://agoodtimewithwine.com/
Windy City Wine Guy	http://windycitywineguy.com/
Purple Teeth Diaries	http://purpleteethdiaries.com/
Savvy Taste	http://savvytaste.blogspot.com/
Cellar Mistress	http://cellarmistress.blogspot.com/
Nor Cal Wine	http://www.norcal-wine.com/

Social Winemaking for a Great Social Cause

noah — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:30:41 +0000

Our largest winemaking group to date is probably in the hundreds. Gary Vaynerchuk made a Vayniac Cabernet with a bunch of crazy Vayniacs in 2007. But today, with the launch of The Fledgling Initiative, we’re going to try social winemaking on a grander scale by inviting the tens of millions of people in the Twitter universe to follow along with, and at some points participate in, a social winemaking project. Not only will this project produce some seriously good wine, it will also benefit the outstanding non-profit Room to Read.

Here’s the skinny:

We’ve partnered with Twitter and Room to Read to put the Fledgling Initiative together.

The Twitter employees are making a limited edition Pinot Noir and Chardonnay at Crushpad using some of the best vineyards in California. We’ll document this process with lots of fun and educational winemaking videos, photos and information that we’ll publish on Twitter @fledgling.

We’re asking everyone to pre-buy some of this wine and follow along with the project. The wine is only $20 and $5 goes to Room to Read to promote literacy in some of the most resource deprived areas of the world. They create award winning local language books, build schools and provide long term scholarships to girls where they’re needed most.

In addition to the great content we’ll be publishing, there will also be events that everyone can participate in, like the world’s largest barrel tasting in the spring. The tasting will simultaneously take place in person at Crushpad San Francisco, at Tweetups in select cities and online.

We’ve got some other crazy ideas up our sleeves as well so please pick up a few bottles, join us for the ride and help promote a great cause.

It’s just a little rain

crushpad — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:09:50 +0000

We’ve received quite a few inquiries about the current weather and its impact on the grapes that are still out there. Here’s a quick summary of how we determine how much we freak out when it rains.

First of all, we look at the severity and length of the rains. 6″ in two days is much more concerning than a sprinkle.

Then we look at the weather after the rains. If we see some nice, cool weather with lots of winds, then that makes us feel good. If it’s just more rain, then bad. If it’s still and very hot after the rains, this can also be bad as it sets up an environment for mold and rot.

We also look at the fruit and canopy. If we’re looking at loose-clustered varietal, such as Cabernet or Syrah, then we tend not to be freaked out as water doesn’t tend to get stuck in the clusters. Tight-clustered varietals such as Pinot, Chard and Zin can be concerning as water gets stuck in the clusters and provides a home for nasties to develop. Wind can help a lot, as can an open canopy in the fruiting zone (that means there’s not a whole lot of leaf coverage around where the clusters are - this opens up for wind and sun to dry).

There are other factors, such as whether there is already mold/mildew pressure in the vineyard which we’ll often find in very wet years. Again, this tends to be more problematic in tight-clustered varietals. OTOH, sometimes a little bit of botrytis in a white wine can be a very nice thing.

As much as I hate to admit, logistics also comes into play. If the winery is full-up then one tends to view things as less destructive. If you’ve got room to ferment, then you become chicken little.

All in all, it’s clearly not an exact science. You weigh the risk of picking fruit too early where you end up with green/undeveloped flavors and harsh tannin that often requires under-extraction in the winery with the risk of being forced to pick right after the rains and ending up with waterlogged fruit and rot that needs to be sorted out.

Having said all this, in our six years with dozens of California vineyards, waiting out the rains seems to work in most cases. Let the rain pass, get some nice California sun and wind to dry out the vines, and let the ripeness continue and pick it when it’s ready.

What do Twitter, Crushpad and Room to Read have fermenting?

noah — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:07:30 +0000

This Thursday we’re going to announce something very special with Twitter and Room to Read. We’re pretty jazzed about this project as it will present many firsts for Crushpad and make a huge impact around the world. You probably already know Twitter, unless you’ve been living under a rock, but you should also get to know Room to Read. Room to Read promotes literacy in some of the poorest areas of the world. They create award winning local language books, they build schools and they provide scholarships for girls where they are at risk of being left behind or overlooked.

We will be announcing our partnership at their events in Tokyo, Austin and San Francisco on Thursday October 15. We’ll also be auctioning off some very limited edition wine. If you can make it to any of the events it would mean a lot and you’d be helping a good cause.

For Tickets

San Francisco: https://www.roomtoread.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=500&chid=6

Austin: https://www.roomtoread.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=514&chid=6