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.

Michael BrillMichael Brill

Custom Winemaker Crushpad Grows Up