CrushPad will move to Sonoma
After a year in Napa, the custom crush winery finds a home at Sebastiani
Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery (above) will make room for Crushpad's 1,000-square-foot tasting bar and visitors center later this year.
Sonoma, Calif.—After exactly a year in Napa Valley, CrushPad is moving to Sonoma. The specialist in small-lot winemaking will move 18 miles west, into Sonoma’s 300,000-case Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery, now owned by investor Bill Foley’s Foley Family Wines.
CrushPad founder and CEO Michael Brill says that Foley is coming in as a “significant” but not majority stockholder. CrushPad also is looking for $2.5 to $3 million in additional capital investment.
CrushPad started by making tiny lots, mostly for wine enthusiasts, and now has many small commercial customers. Originally in a warehouse in San Francisco, it moved into the Silverado Trail Wine Studio owned by Premier Pacific Vineyards a year ago under a one-year lease with an option to stay.
Brill says CrushPad will have 5,000 square feet of dedicated production space at the winery at 389 Fourth St. near downtown Sonoma, plus 4,000 square feet of office space. Much of its business involves software development and customer service. Plenty of barrel-aging space is available, too.
Sebastiani has extra space, having reduced production to focus on higher end wines in recent years.
The move will be complete by April 30, followed later this year by the opening of a 1,000-square-foot tasting bar and visitors’ center. The tasting room is next to Sebastiani’s tasting room in the century-old winery, which receives some 60,000 visitors per year.
More than 100 CrushPad Commerce clients will be able to showcase and sell their wines. CrushPad will also host pouring seminars and events, and educate visitors on the process of small-production winemaking through interactive multimedia stations and an experienced staff of wine specialists.
To control production
In addition to the highly visible and expanded facility, Brill says the wine company will be able once again to control its own production. At Silverado Trail, CrushPad had to leave production to that facility’s staff.
He adds that CrushPad will keep a foot in Napa, resurrecting its agreement with Bin to Bottle custom winery there to handle larger lots or the few customers who just have to have their wine made in Napa.
Brill intends to outfit the new visitor center in Sonoma with high-tech stations that let visitors see how different wines are made, using interactive touch screens and while tasting the wines made with the demonstrated processes.
The facility may also provide a subtle sales pitch for making your own wines there, Brill allows. It can cost $10,000 to have CrushPad make a barrel of top wine from famous vineyards.
The facility will also have a “fishbowl” glass viewing area for visitors to observe the action in the cellar.
CrushPad’s recently published 2011 Vineyard List includes noted cool-climate sites such as Durrell Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast, well-known Bordeaux varietal sites such as Stagecoach Vineyard in Napa Valley, and touted Rhône varietal sites such as the White Hawk Vineyard in Santa Barbara County. The full list of vineyards is available at crushpadwine.com/vineyardlist. Get more information at crushpadwine.com.