Arcade Fire crowd.
All Photos: Wendy Goodfriend

The synergistic mashup of Food + Wine + Music + Art makes Outside Lands one of the best all-around summer festivals in the Bay Area. It is rare to attend such a large event that has great musical entertainment, excellent food and wine and is also eco-friendly. Here are some of the things I experienced this past weekend.

Food + Wine Slideshow

Music + Art Slideshow

Related posts:
• Outside Lands: A First Timer's Take on an Eco-Friendly Gourmet Music Festival
• Wine Lands: Favorite Food + Band + Wine Pairings at Outside Lands
  
• Outside Lands Recap 2011 at KQED Arts
• Guide to Outside Lands 2011 at KQED Arts

Outside Lands Windmill -- recycle, compost, trash.
All Photos: Wendy Goodfriend

Outside Lands, now in it's fourth year, drew nearly 180,000 visitors this past weekend. I was one of them. On Saturday morning, as I walked along a dirt path through Lindley Meadow into a eucalyptus grove with parachutes and rope swings dangling from the trees, I thought of how this seemed a cross between Burning Man and the board game Candy Land. Ok, Outside Lands was fifty degrees cooler than Burning Man and it's in the middle of Golden Gate Park, rather than the desert. Still, the music festival has this collective feel where everyone comes together to appreciate artistic expression, be it music, food, wine or other artistic endeavors. Then, everyone leaves the land no worse for wear, hopefully. In fact, this was the most organized compost and recycling program I have ever seen at a big outdoor event.

Wind Chime Swing. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Choco Lands. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

Outside Lands also has this feeling that everything happening on the periphery is just as interesting as the bigger events, whether they are major rock bands or pyrotechnic shows. And just like Candy Land, curvy dirt paths take you from one fun land to the next. Instead of Candy Cane Forest and Gum Drop Mountain you have Food Truck Forest, Choco Lands, Wine Lands and Eco Lands. Wander down a dirt path away from the polo fields, which hosted the likes of Phish and Arcade Fire, and you might end up, as I did, amidst cypress and eucalyptus trees watching a tiny carny opera with mime faced performers dressed in kilts playing Appalachian ballads and doing their own version of the River Dance. Before the opera I visited Eco Lands, which honors San Francisco's commitment to sustainability, with all sorts of educational booths, valet bike parking and emerging artists performing on a solar powered stage. This year introduced urban agriculture to Outside Lands with yet another land to discover, Farm Lands. Here you could play games like "Veggie Twister," take an urban gardening class and munch on organic watermelon slices from Full Belly Farms.

Arcade Fire. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

Flotsam's Wonder World Opera. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Full Belly Farms Farmers Market. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

With my appetite whetted by healthy produce, I set out to explore the higher caloric choices at Outside Lands. There are more than fifty local restaurants and food trucks at this event. For a little hog in the fog action, one could try Flour + Water's porchetta sandwiches. Head Chef Thomas McNaughton said, because they only work with small farms, it took six months to prepare for the concert. Eleven acres of arugula had to be planted and, to be honest, I couldn't listen when he explained how many pigs from near Nicassio were slaughtered, let's just say it was enough to make 7,000 sandwiches over the weekend. McNaughton said the idea was also to create a little buzz for Flour + Water's two new projects, also in the Mission, Salumeria and Central Kitchen. Maybe I just knew too much about the porchetta sandwiches but I ended up trying a different meal with pork, Korean tacos from Namu. They were not really tacos at all but rather pork or chicken wrapped in seaweed with a delicious kim chee remoulade. I also had a taste of a veggie samosa from New Ganges Indian Food and a grilled cheese sandwich, with peppers, from The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen. They were both good but not as interesting as the "tacos." You can also read about my time at Wine Lands where i discovered some very delicious small lot wineries.

Thomas McNaughton and porchetta sandwich assembly line. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

I am thinking Outside Lands might be worth another visit next year. I mean, what other festival can you listen to the arena-rock jams of English Band Muse while sipping a spicy Pinot Noir preceded by a worm composting workshop?

Muse. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Related posts:
• Outside Lands Recap 2011 at KQED Arts
• Guide to Outside Lands 2011 at KQED Arts

Wine Lands 2011.
All Photos: Wendy Goodfriend

In the hit song, "California One," indie rock band, "The Decemberists," pay homage to the grape with the line, "Take a long drown with me of California wine." The fact that the band appreciates a good bottle of wine makes sense once you find out every member carries a Zagat iPhone app for culinary guidance on long road trips. This band appears right at home at a festival like Outside Lands where food and wine vendors seem to share top billing with the music line up.

Decemberists at Outside Lands 2011. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

Outside Lands gourmet fare is a far cry from rock concerts of yesteryear where the best one could hope for was a warm draft beer and a lousy hot dog. Beer might have a history with young people and big, outdoor events but this weekend micro-brews took a back seat to local, small lot wineries. By late Saturday afternoon the line was more than fifteen people deep as I waited for a taste of 2009 Mendocino Pinot Noir from Navarro. As usual, Navarro did not disappoint. While in line I overheard the following conversation, "That is such a butterball, you should really check out Wind Gap, their wines are so balanced." Am I at a rock concert?

Wind Gap wine booth at Wine Lands. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

The idea of Wine Lands, which has now grown to thirty artisanal wineries and one hundred wines all under one big open-air tent, is the brainchild of Peter Eastlake. Eastlake is co-owner of Vintage Berkeley, a wine shop that focuses on small production wines -- most under twenty five dollars. Eastlake believes that wine and, well, nearly everything go together. He even had some favorite pairings for this year’s music line up.

Peter Eastlake. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

Phish:

For Phish, give me something lunar, hippie and refreshing for all that spinning, scooping and dumping. Bonny Doon's biodynamic spaceship adorned 2010 Vin Gris de Cigare all the way.

Erykah Badu:

When Erykah Badu sings, people listen. She’s a strong woman with a vocal range that can howl, scream, screech and make you cry. There is one wine for her show, and it rhymes with pink bubbles, Gloria Ferrer Blanc De Noirs.

The Roots:

These Philly boys are so versatile, funky and flat out likeable. Our man in Sebastopol, bass player Les Claypool, is pouring his spicy GSM blend called Purple Pachyderm.

Phish at Outside Lands 2011. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

Oh, let's not forget the other star of the show, the food. This year's Outside Lands included more than fifty local restaurants and food trucks and asked Eastlake for a couple of suggestions for pairings. For the Mac and Cheese from Oakland's Homeroom, Eastlake recommends a California Chardonnay like Hess Collection, Hirsch Estate for a special treat or Lioco's 2010 Sonoma County on tap.

I thought I was going to stump him when I asked about the very popular Fabulous Frickle Brothers fried pickles. Without blinking, Eastlake said, "It's a little known fact that deep fried pickled gherkins are only found in two places in the world -- Tennessee and Germany's Mosel River. Summer of Riesling. If you don't like Riesling, try the Riesling."

Fabulous Frickle Brothers' Frickles. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

Paul Grieco, owner of Terroir wine bar in New York, is on tour. He is traveling around the country in a Winnebago preaching the gospel of Riesling. Grieco wants people to know Riesling is lots of things including, not always sweet. Says Grieco, who even has a Riesling tattoo along his forearm, "Riesling is the best grape in the world." I tried the 2009 Toni Jost and liked it a lot.

Press Conference at Outside Lands 2011. Damien Kulash of OK Go, Thomas McNaughton - Salumeria by flour + water, Sommelier Paul Grieco - Summer of Riesling tour. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend.

Although Eastlake curated all of the wines under the tent, star sommelier Rajat Parr picked a few for the VIP tents including: Kermit Lynch's Bandol Rose, Qupe's Syrah and Navarro's Pinot Noir. Parr was also pouring his own brand at Wine Lands.

Sandhi wine booth at Wine Lands. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

Sandhi Wines is a boutique winery focusing on the grapes of Santa Barbara. Parr makes a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir. The Pinot is elegant, complex and superb. Parr uses only native yeasts in his wines, part of a trend toward a more natural way of making wines. Taking this effort several steps further is Natural Process Alliance which also had a booth at Wine Lands.

NPA is minimalist winemaking which, briefly, includes: Sustainable vineyard management, organic grapes, native yeasts and very little to no added sulfur. NPA delivers natural wine in reusable stainless steel canisters to restaurants and wine bars within a one hundred mile radius of their Santa Rosa cellar. Like kegs, NPA stays clear of corks and heavy glass bottles. I tried the 2010 Chalk Hill Pinot Gris. It was not my favorite but I appreciated the unique, flavorful taste.

Kermit Lynch booth at Wine Lands. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

I thought it was kind of cool to see legendary importer Kermit Lynch hosting a booth at Wine Lands. This was their first foray into the world of big outdoor events and would probably do it again in an effort to attract a new generation of drinkers. My favorite Kermit Lynch Wine that day was a 2010 Bandol Terebrune Rose. I found it spicy and herbaceous.

Chris Hall, VP & GM of Long Meadow Ranch at Wine Lands. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

The big winner for me at Wine Lands this year was wine on tap from Long Meadow Ranch. Besides, being eco-friendly and less pricy, the wine tastes just as good as if it was in a bottle. I tried Long Meadow’s 2010 Sauvignon Blanc, poured through a stainless steel tap. It was vibrant and crisp with a little of what seemed like effervescence. I thought it must be the keg but, no, that’s their Sauvignon Blanc. Delicious. Personally, I think the keg is a winner but winemakers are still trying to decouple it from the image of frat parties. Maybe hip, rock musicians can help lead the way. Rumor has it band members from MGMT were seen hanging out at the Long Meadow booth sipping on a 2009 draft Cabernet blend.

MGMT at Outside Lands 2011. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

Related posts:
• Outside Lands: A First Timer's Take on an Eco-Friendly Gourmet Music Festival
• Outside Lands Recap 2011 at KQED Arts
• Guide to Outside Lands 2011 at KQED Arts

Looks like beer but it's wine. Photo credit: Karen Hester

The first time I heard the term "East Bay Wineries" I immediately thought of Livermore Valley home to dozens of wineries including Wente and Concannon. I wasn’t aware of the nearly twenty urban wineries that dot the industrial west side of Berkeley and Oakland. As it turns out, one of the best ways to explore the growing East Bay wine scene is by bike. So, one recent hot summer Saturday, I met up with some friends in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland. We pumped up our tires, donned backpacks to carry our bounty of wine bottles and set off on a twenty mile ride through Oakland.

Steve Shaffer with Urban Legends mascot, Sunshine

Urban Legend
Our first stop: Urban Legend Cellars, one of three wineries in the Jack London Square area. Steve and Marilee Shaffer own and make the wine at this mom and pop cellar and it all happens in the company of their pit bull, Sunshine.

We bellied up to the tasting bar just as they were opening their doors. For five dollars you can run through at least a half dozen tastings and the fee is waived if you make a purchase. I loved these wines -- crisp, acidic, good food wines with not a lot of barrel overtones. Some of my favorites included: a 2010 Rosato di Barbera from Clarksburg ($18); a 2009 Rhone style blend of reds called Lolapalooza from Amador County ($26) and a 2009 Uptown from Mendocino County ($20/liter).

Now there are a couple of cool things about this last wine. First, it's sold by the liter in a refillable bottle and second, it's named after a neighborhood in Oakland. Each harvest, Steve and Marilee pick a local Oakland 'hood to feature. Next year visitors can expect a West Oakland Wine. "What will that taste like?" I asked. "The wine will likely be a spicy blend of Petite Syrah and Zinfandel, sort of capturing that Brown Sugar Kitchen food renaissance of the neighborhood," Marilee told me over the wail of a passing Amtrak train. A scientist by training, she explained her wine making philosophy and answered my friends' many questions which included "how do you spit properly" since we were all two-wheeled designated drivers that day. Needless to say, we could have stayed at Urban Legend all day but we had other city cellars to discover. We bought a couple bottles and headed off to the farmers market a few blocks away.

Irish Monkey Cellars. Photo: Karen Hester

Irish Monkey
After fueling up on ceviche and tamales from a food truck, we peddled off along the Oakland harbor between the estuary and I-880 freeway down towards the High Street Bridge. We were looking for Irish Monkey Cellars which is easy to miss as it’s located in an industrial park tucked back behind Embarcadero Cove. A banner hanging from a chain link fence gave us a clue we were near. We parked our bikes against the warehouse wall and went into the rather small, but elegant, darkened tasting room where we found the winemaker, Bob Lynch. He was quite chatty and shared the story behind the winery's name. Six years ago he and his wife Loreta coined the name "Irish Monkey." Bob's background is Irish and he wields a unique sense of humor. We started out with a 2008 Torrontes ($12), the grapes sourced from Lodi. That was followed up with a Contra Costa Viognier and then we moved on to their reds, many award winning. My favorite was a 2009 one hundred percent Napa Merlot ($24). I liked the diversity of varietals and local vineyards from which Irish Monkey sources. We were eager to get back into the sun so we thanked our host and headed out over the High Street Bridge to Alameda.

Riding along Alameda. Photo: Karen Hester

We peddled across Alameda over to Shoreline Drive where we hung a right and rode up past Crown Beach and the throng of sunbathers. If we were on an organized East Bay winery bike tour, this is where we would stop to eat our specially prepared picnic lunch. Owner Jon Zalon’s trips, and his wife's lunches, get rave reviews. But we were a motley crew, armed only with fruit bars and a curiosity for the upcoming wineries housed at the decommissioned naval air station at the tip of Alameda.

Looking for Rock Wall Wine Company. Photo: Karen Hester

Rock Wall Wine Company
It was hard to believe we were going to find a winery somewhere in this vast old military base full of old airplane hangars, barracks and officer's clubs. But we had been finding wineries all day tucked behind chain link fences and graffiti strewn walls. We eventually found the Rock Wall Wine Company which provides production space and a tasting bar for more than a half dozen wineries. This is a top of the line tasting bar with expansive views of the Bay Bridge and two city skylines. Rock Wall has a little outdoor patio where on nice days customers can sit at tables and enjoy drinking wine accompanied by small plates cuisine. For our tasting they started us off with a Rock Wall sparkling which was one of my favorites. I also enjoyed the 2009 Rock Wall Zinfandel Reserve from Sonoma. This spicy Zin, which goes for $30 a bottle, was a gold medal winner at the California State Fair this year. Unfortunately, none of my wines included tastings of the other wineries that use the space.

Tasting at Rock Wall Wine Company. Photo: Karen Hester

The celebratory mood of our Rock Wall visit was probably enhanced by the fact that it was getting later in the afternoon and we were swallowing most of our tastings now. We tried to squeeze in one more stop, Rosenblum Cellars, one of the largest wineries in the East Bay. But as we approached the winery, we heard "all aboard" coming from the ferry dock below. Rosenblum would have to wait for another time. On the five minute ferry ride back to Jack London Square we agreed to visit the winery one warm Sunday afternoon for their "Music on the Deck" series. I did come back, the next week, to check out Dasche Cellars on 6th Street in the Jack London Square neighborhood. If you like bone dry wines, this urban cellar is for you. I bought a bottle of excellent 2008 Todd Brothers Ranch Zinfandel ($32). If you are curious about East Bay wines and you want to experience as many as possible in just one trip, you're in luck. On Saturday, August 6, The East Bay Vintners Alliance is hosting the 6th Annual Urban Wine Experience. Over twenty cellars will be pouring their wines along with local food purveyors serving food. Come forth and taste urban wines! And for those that won't be spitting, BART is just a few blocks away.

6th Annual Urban Wine Experience
Saturday, August 6, 2011
2-5 p.m.
Jack London Pavilion
One Broadway
Oakland, CA 94607
Early Bird Rate (until 8/1): $40, After Aug 1: $60, $10 designated driver
Advance tickets: East Bay Vintners
Facebook: East Bay Vintners

The Cat in the Hat surprised the guests on the set of Check, Please! Bay Area at KQED

Check, Please! Bay Area Season 6: episode 4 airs Thursday July 28 at 7:30pm on KQED TV 9. View other airtimes and channels.

You can watch individual restaurant segments as well as view the entire episode online. The website also provides restaurant information not specified on the show, written reviews from the guests and restaurant recipes. If you have opinions on the restaurants featured please feel free to share your thoughts. This season, Leslie Sbrocco will be sharing wine tips with each episode.

The fourth episode of the season features these restaurants: Alhamra Indian & Pakistani Restaurant (San Francisco), Mandalay (San Francisco) and Café Gibraltar (Half Moon Bay).

Leslie Sbrocco: Wine Tips -- Navigating Wine Lists

Check, Please! Bay Area Season 6: episode 3 airs Thursday July 21 at 7:30pm on KQED TV 9. View other airtimes and channels.

You can watch individual restaurant segments as well as view the entire episode online. The website also provides restaurant information not specified on the show, written reviews from the guests and restaurant recipes. If you have opinions on the restaurants featured please feel free to share your thoughts. This season, Leslie Sbrocco will be sharing wine tips with each episode.

The third episode of the season features these restaurants: Grand Oaks Restaurant and Sports Lounge (Oakland), Risibisi Italian Restaurant (Petaluma) and The Elite Cafe (San Francisco).

Leslie Sbrocco: Wine Tips -- About Stemware

Check, Please! Bay Area Season 6: episode 2 airs Thursday July 14 at 7:30pm on KQED TV 9. View other airtimes and channels.

You can watch individual restaurant segments as well as view the entire episode online. The website also provides restaurant information not specified on the show, written reviews from the guests and restaurant recipes. If you have opinions on the restaurants featured please feel free to share your thoughts. This season, Leslie Sbrocco will be sharing wine tips with each episode.

The second episode of the season features these restaurants: Nettie's Crab Shack (San Francisco), Walzwerk (San Francisco) and Dragon Rouge Restaurant (Alameda).

Leslie Sbrocco: Wine Tips -- Serving Temperature

Why wait until the weekend to visit the wine country when the wine country can come to you? The third annual Sonoma in the City is being held all this week in San Francisco with events from grand tastings to wine and food truck pairings. In fact, with over 100 vintners pouring their wines, Tuesday’s grand tasting marks the biggest tasting outside of Sonoma -- ever. The week kicked off Tuesday morning with a panel talk on Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. Now, I don't know about you but I'm a total Pinot fan and who wouldn't be when a grape has been described as sexy, supple, elusive and elegant.

Pinot Noir has come a long way since the 2004 movie,“Sideways,” pushed Pinot sales through the roof. But behind all the hype is still the fact that it is a finicky grape to grow and Pinot Noir is a difficult wine to make. As luck would have it, some of the best Pinot Noir comes right out of the Sonoma Coast. The combination of climate (specific fog patterns), soil and just the right amount of talent make this region a top spot for Pinot Noir. Some of that talent was on the wine panel Tuesday including: Winemaker Bob Cabral with Williams Selyem, Ted Lemon of Littorai Wines and Ross Cobb of Cobb Wines.

The talk focused on site expression, how much new technology to use in making wine and the relationship between the grower and the winemaker. The talk and tasting just confirmed my admiration for Bob Cabral’s wine making and introduced me to a new wine, specifically, the 2009 Emmaline Ann Vineyard Pinot Noir from Cobb Wines. I picked up some great herbs and butterscotch in this crisp, acidic wine.

After the panel it was time for lunch which involved several iconic, aged wines. I could hardly wait to tear into the wines but first my table had to spend several minutes disagreeing about which way we taste, to the right or to the left. When you have something like 72 glasses on the table you need to have some kind of coordination, or the left handed person ends up with no wine and someone else ends up needing to take a cab home. We finally figured it out which leads me to my favorite lunch wines: A 1997 Iron Horse Vineyards Joy! Sparkling wine, a 2005 Hanzell Vineyards Chardonnay and best of all, a 1992 Silver Oak Cab. Yum.

Ross Cobb pouring a Cobb Pinot Noir

The best part of lunch for me, besides the pork belly in a green pea puree with a Papapietro Perry Pinot (say that three times fast) was that I sat next to Master Sommelier, Evan Goldstein. The food and wine vet was kind of busy leading a cadre of winemakers through the various lunch courses but I did talk with him about California’s efforts to pull back from the big oak Chardonnays and I asked him about the controversial new state law which, starting in 2014, will require the inclusion of “Sonoma County” on the front label of all Sonoma County wines. Goldstein said it was a terrific question but didn’t want to register an opinion. Winemakers are an individualistic bunch and don’t like to be told what to do. Many feel the new requirement crowds their label but the Sonoma County Vintners hope it will build brand name for Sonoma.

After lunch it was on to the grand tasting for the rest of the folks and time for me to return to work, wishing I had 'spit' a bit more during the morning course and lunch.

Sonoma in the City remaining public events:

Thursday, July 14, 2011: Forks and Corks at the Firehouse, 5:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m. Fort Mason, San Francisco.

Friday, July 15, 2011: Vin 12 presents Sonoma Valley Wines, 5:30 p.m.–9p.m. at Sloane, 1525 Mission St, San Francisco

A calendar and links to all tickets can be found at sonomawine.com/sf.

Check, Please! Bay Area Season 6: episode 1 airs Thursday July 7 at 7:30pm on KQED TV 9. View other airtimes and channels.

You can watch individual restaurant segments as well as view the entire episode online. The website also provides restaurant information not specified on the show, written reviews from the guests and restaurant recipes. If you have opinions on the restaurants featured please feel free to share your thoughts. This season, Leslie Sbrocco will be sharing wine tips with each episode.

The first episode of the season features these restaurants: Lovejoy's Tea Room (San Francisco), Don Pico's Mexican Bistro & Cevicheria (San Bruno) and Saha (San Francisco).

Leslie Sbrocco: Wine Tips -- 4 S's of Wine Tasting

From its San Francisco garagista roots to its new spot on the big stage in Sonoma, Crushpad is on the way to becoming a Hewlett Packard success story for the wine industry. The custom crush operation, which was founded seven years ago in a Bay Area garage, just moved into its latest digs: The historic Sebastiani Winery near downtown Sonoma. The story behind how Crushpad got there may be just as interesting as the community winery’s plans for its new production space and experiential wine tasting bar.

The Crushpad story

In 2002 Michael Brill, then a Silicon Valley software engineer, tore up his backyard in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco and planted Pinot Noir grapes. By the 2003 harvest, Brill was making wine out of his tiny garage with the help of several volunteer neighbors. The urbanite enthusiasm to make wine and Brill’s difficulty holding down what had become a second job led him to launch Crushpad. One of the first custom crush facilities for hobbyists and small scale labels, it took off. Crushpad is now in Bordeaux and exploring Asia. Brill made a decision early on to source fruit from some of the best vineyards in California. This meant his model would be small lot, high-end wines. The minimum order is a barrel, which ranges in price from six thousand dollars to ten thousand dollars, depending on the type of fruit.

While Japanese pop stars and Hollywood film directors are among the clientele, public media producers, like myself, can get in on a Share A Barrel program which matches up ten folks for one barrel. When we bottle next month, I’ll get six cases of low oak Chardonnay from the Santa Lucia Highlands for which I had a Crushpad artist help me design my wine label. I also get to attend crush, blending and tasting sessions and other events. I harbor no fantasies of making money from wine making, it’s an expensive business. Still, about half of Crushpad’s clientele are commerce clients who pay for support in seeking licensing, promoting and selling their wines.

Crushpad client wine. Photo credit: Crushpad

Since it’s urban beginnings, Crushpad has offered Crushnet, an online winemaking support service.

“You can be sitting on your sofa in Shanghai drinking a glass of Bordeaux and see all the stats on your wine in Sonoma and when the time comes to do a final blend on your wine you can request barrel samples be shipped to you. The client can literally sit at their dining room table and meet with the winemaker over the phone, or Skype, and come up with the final blend,” says Mark Marinozzi, Vice President of Marketing for Crushpad.

The idea of buying grapes from a vineyard and paying a custom crush winery to make them into wine is nothing new. In fact, the high cost of land in places like Napa is what helped give custom crush facilities their start. During the recession larger companies like Bin to Bottle, Owl Ridge Services and Napa Wine Company benefited from growers with unsold grapes. But smaller custom crush places that serve hobbyists and small commercial labels, like Crushpad, saw their non-commerce clients dip. But now they are seeing an uptick and just this week an indy custom crush facility called DogPatch WineWorks launched in Crushpad’s home haunt. While this might be good news for DIY vinophiles, who miss making wine in the city, there is some controversy fermenting. The folks behind WineWorks include a former Crushpad staff member and investor unhappy with the company’s move to the wine country.

Surviving the downturn

It can be hard to turn a profit when you are a custom crush facility sourcing expensive fruit and every member has a vote in how their wine is made. But the company’s high end, small lot production model may have helped them survive the recent recession. Marinozzi explains,

"A lot of the luxury brands that were in the 50,000 case range were very reliant on restaurants, bars and national chain accounts -- then the recession hit and they had to start discounting. You see brands go from $35.00 to $18.99. They were built up as a luxury player and now they are in Safeway."

Online flash sales and discount sites have become commonplace as wineries try to reduce idle inventory. Marinozzi says cutting deals and degrading brand image has had a downward effect on the marketplace.

"Your Fleur de Lys and French Laundrys were not going to keep wine on their list that you could find in a grocery store. So the opportunity for the ultra small lot winemaker is right there to fill the void that was created by this downturn so a lot of Crushpad’s clients took advantage of that."

Outside Crushpad's new tasting room. Photo Credit: Crushpad

New Home

Just like any other Bay Area renter, Crushpad has had to move a lot. The company, which started in Brill’s garage, moved to a warehouse in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood then, again, to a larger space in the city and then to Napa to rent space from the Silverado Trail Wine Studios. The latest move to Sonoma is the one that Marinozzi says makes all the difference.

"Sebastiani is a world class operation. It's a campus with flexibility between doing small lot production and large production and we can build up and really make it our own."

Crushpad's barrel room. Photo Credit: Crushpad

Crushpad will exist side by side with the Sebastiani winery which is owned by Foley Family Wines. Bill Foley, now a principal investor in Crushpad, has created more space at Sebastiani after decreasing its production to focus on high-end wines. The financing deal gives Crushpad more than five thousand feet of production space plus office space, a VIP area for commerce clients and a tasting bar that will feature Crushpad client wines. You can get an idea of the new visitors center from this rough, artist rendering:

The Exploratorium of the Wine Industry

Crushpad will continue to offer wine blending and sensory analysis classes. But the new addition for consumers will be interactive multimedia stations in the wine tasting room. Visitors will be able to use prepaid cards to operate self-pouring dispensers that allow then to taste along to a number of videos showing all the elements of winemaking.

"For example, you might watch one on the vineyards of the Sonoma coast and cool climate winemaking while trying four different wines under different weather conditions. There will be this opportunity to experience the Exploratorium of the wine industry through the experience stations or take it a step higher and get involved in a class." says Marinozzi.

Crushpad's new tasting bar and visitor center will open this fall.

Related Links:
Website: Crushpad
Twitter: @crushpad
Facebook: Crushpad
Flickr: crushpadwine
YouTube: Crushpad video channel
Location: Map