Thursday, July 19, 2007

Winemaking Is Addictive

This is Crushpad's motto, and boy do we believe it now.

Having already committed to making a barrel of 2007 zinfandel with Katie and Ryan, Lori and Marc attended the Crushpad NYC tasting event in April in which the company had samples of wines made the previous year for clients and potential clients to taste to get a sense of the different vineyards and the quality of wine being made through Crushpad. It was a great event, and Lori and Marc could just not shake the memory of how wonderful a particular 2006 sauvignon blanc poured at the event tasted. It was crisp and bursting with citrus flavors yet amazingly full bodied. It was literally the best sauvignon blanc we've tasted in years.

Based on this tasting, we began dreaming of making our own version of this sauvignon blanc from the 2007 harvest. In fact, Lori was ready to commit to making a barrel immediately at the NYC event. It took Marc just a few short weeks to mull it over and come to the same conclusion. The 2006 Crushpad sauvignon blanc was bottled just a month before the NYC tasting event -- in March 2007 -- and we could expect the same time frame from the 2007 harvest, meaning it'd be ready by March 2008. We found the prospect of being able to actually drink the wine we are making (and have it taste so good) a mere six months after harvest too tempting to pass up, especially since the barrel of zinfandel we are making won't be ready to inbibe until sometime in 2009! (Red wines age for much longer than whites before being bottled and usually also require additional time in the bottle before they are ready for drinking.) We just couldn't wait that long to taste the results of our winemaking project.

Really though, this is purely a scientific venture. Since our zinfandel will not be ready before the 2008 harvest, how would we know if we wanted to do this again next year if we didn't have some type of finished wine before then? Truly we had no choice but to dive into a second barrel. Thankfully, our zin partners Katie and Ryan and Marc's parents and neighbors agreed (or so we've theorized) to help us out and take a few cases off our hands.

We have no doubt when you taste the results, we won't have enough to go around. So, add to our expanding winemaking brand the 2007 Galleron Road Sauvignon Blanc.

As a wise man once said: "A bottle of red, a bottle of white...."

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Friday, July 13, 2007

And the Winner Is.....

Thanks to everyone who posted comments and e-mailed us directly in response to our request for you to help us name our wine. Two names seemed to continually be pointed to as favorites:

Pro Se and Fainwood.

Fortunately (and unfortunately), I think those are our favorites as well. Now we just need to make the decision. If anyone has strong opinions one way or another, or if you really want to make a case for another name, please let us know. We'll let you know the final decision soon.

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