The Covered Bridge Cellars Blog

A New Look For Our Blog

We decided to try out a new design for the blog that better incorporates our logo color and font. Part of this change stems from the ongoing development of our website and the clean, minimalist design that has emerged after lots of brainstorming and refinement of ideas. One thing we have been thinking about is whether or not to integrate the blog into the website, or, keep it separate. It's already setup as a subdomain of coveredbridgecellars.com, which, for SEO purposes means it's viewed as a separate site by Google. But since the content is about our business we are leaning toward integrating it into our site, which means this design could change again--albeit slightly. One issues that poses a few challenges is that our main website is going to be a one-column layout with horizontal navigation, while the blog is two columns. Either way there a few different ways we can proceed with this. We're still thinking things through and will keep playing with the pieces of the puzzle until the right model emerges. So what do you think of the design? Do we integrate, or, keep it separate?

Jeremy

What Defines a Great Wine?

There are many ways to go about answering this question, but I want to focus on wine as a product. What makes a bottle of wine great in the eyes of the end user? Is it taste, packaging, prestige of the producer, price point, rarity? One way to try and answer this question is to take a step back and try to define what makes a great product in general. In his monthly Entrepreneur magazine column, venture capitalist and blogger Guy Kawasaki, offers a useful framework for doing just that. The one page write-up can be found HERE.  The key attributes that serve as hallmarks of a great product are as follows:

1. Deep
2. Indulgent
3. Complete
4. Elegant
5. Emotive

Let's take these one at a time and apply them to wine as a product.

Deep - A deep product is one that is feature rich. How can a wine be feature rich? To me, this means that the wine is versatile, it evolves in the glass, it has multifaceted flavors and aroma profiles that you discover over a period of time, perhaps between glasses, or, between bottles. A deep wine can be given as special gift for any occasion. A deep wine is serious and attention to detail is obvious in every respect.

Indulgent - People love indulging themselves. Rewarding yourself is one of life's little pleasures, it makes you feel good and keeps you going. A great product satisfies this basic human need. Rare, expensive, and exceptionally tasting wines are indulgences. There is a sense of luxury that surrounds them and it is apparent to anyone.

Complete - A great product is a complete experience. For wine this means the back label is useful and adds value to the consumer. It means that technical notes, tasting notes, and all other documentation about the product are readily available. It means customer service is top notch and that the consumer has multiple channels with which to communicate with you. It means replacing a bad bottle, no questions asked. Overall, it means embracing a customer centric approach even though your business model is dominated by a product focused strategy--which is the case with many wine producers.

Elegant - In the article, Kawasaki describes an elegant product as one that "doesn't fight you," instead, "it enhances you." To me this is more about the product packaging and brand image than anything else. Simplicity is a good thing. Clean, balanced labels, with appropriate white space and attention to detail goes a long way toward invoking the perception of elegance in the mind of the consumer. Design is important and the "user interface" should enhance the overall experience. As an example, I hate trying to open bottles that have been sealed with wax. There is nothing elegant about chipping away at the bottle to get to the juice inside.

Emotive - This is an elusive concept, but the underlying message is that there is a call to action with a great product. You want to show it off and tell people all about it. I like to call an emotive product a "trophy product."  The viral nature of the wine 2.0 world means that having an emotive product is more critical than ever.

Overall, I thought this was a great way of thinking about what makes a great product. Without question, we are striving to incorporate these ideas into the wines we'll be producing and selling. It will take time, but realizing this ideal is a nice goal to shoot for.

Jeremy

Anderson Valley Vineyard Updates

Two new Crushpad updates have come out for the Hein and Annahala vineyards. It looks like the Hein fruit is a little behind, while the Pinot at Annahala is a little ahead in terms of Brix levels. This is as expected given the relative locations of these two vineyards within Anderson Valley. Hein is well within the Deep End of the valley, which is closer to the ocean and cooler than the micro-climate found around Annahala, which lies much closer to Boonville.You can get more info about the characteristics of Anderson Valley's climate by checking out this post.  Here are the update notes posted by Chris Nelson, our consulting winemaker:

Hein - 9/04/2008 - Brix 19.0 - pH 2.97 - Estimated Harvest Start 9/22/08 - End: 10/02/08
Well, we still got time on this vineyard. I had the vineyard crew out last week to open the canopy a bit and remove any green clusters. I expect another 3 weeks until its ready for harvest, so the week of the 22nd. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll make some great wine again in 2008. CN

Anahala - 9/04/2008 - Brix 21.0 - pH 3.20 - Estimated Harvest Start: 9/15/08 - End: 10/10/08
Looking great at Annahala. Well balanced vineyard and the fruit looks perfect. I expect the same quality as 2007. I would guess the week of the 15th or 22nd. I hope to be back there next week. CN

One interesting thing to note is that the Brix levels around this time last year were considerably higher than what is being recorded now, due primarily to much higher temperatures at the end of the 2007 growing season. For example, on 9/08/2004, an average of three blocks of fruit--115, 777, and Pommard clones--was 23.1 Brix. This year temperatures are much more moderate and thus the fruit is ripening at a more steady pace. In fact, even as I write this I noticed this message from Chris in my inbox:

Just got an update from PPV and we're looking at another few weeks. I am happy to let this stuff ripen slowly because this would be the only place in CA that is moving slowly as all the other Pinot vineyards will be in the next week or so. Thank you Anderson Valley.

This sequence of maps will show you exactly where these two vineyards are located in relation to each other. While other factors come into play, such as slope orientation, cluster and leaf thinning practices, etc., for the most part, vineyards in the warmer micro-climate of the valley will ripen sooner and be available for harvesting sooner, all else equal. You can see the NW orientation of Anderson Valley in this first Google Earth image, the white line represents a distance of about 8 miles.

Click images for a larger version

One cool thing about Google Earth is that you can overlay weather onto the map. If you click on the last graphic to get the big image, you can more easily see that the differential in current temperatures readings (as of 6pm PST) between Navarro in the NW and Boonville in the SE is a whopping 25 degrees!

More updates will be posted as we get them.

Jeremy

 

Post Bottling Update (PICS)

So, thankfully, the inaugural bottling for Covered Bridge Cellars went off without a hitch. It was fascinating watching the action as our 2007 Hein Pinot Noir was finished and packaged into a full-on commercial product. The Crushpad crew---as you will see below---took great care to make sure everything was on point. Below is a series of screen shots that will give you a sense of what it was like watching it all unfold live via the internet. I mean really, how else would a virtual winery keep tabs on this process? As with all the pictures posted to the blog, you can click on them to get the larger version.

*EDIT* You can also go through the photo deck by clicking the "Next" button in the upper right hand corner of the larger image, its white so its tough to see.

An overview of the bottling line




Our Covered Bridge Cellars branded corks

Prepping the label roll

Feeding the roll into the machine

Labeling test run, notice the control  bottle




Fresh bottles ready to go through the line




Filling up the bottles with Pinot Noir




Using a caliper for quality control checks




Capsules being "heat shrunk" onto bottle necks




A case of juice ready for taping and storage




Finished bottles coming off the conveyor




Around 25 cases of Hein Pinot Noitr  : )



The End

I mentioned in the last post that both our wines would be bottled together, but that is not the case, our Alder Springs Chardonnay is actually scheduled for bottling Tues, Sept. 9th at 9am.  So I guess we get to do this all over again then!

Either way, getting our wine to this stage is a nice little milestone for Covered Bridge Cellars. Some of you might be wondering about our labels and what they look like. We are still waiting on a few things, but very shortly we will unveil them here on the blog. We will also have some updates on the design of our website which is coming along nicely--it too will be unveiled soon. In the meantime we are going to try and get back on a regular schedule of posting. There is lot's to talk about, but time is sometimes tough to find. 

Jeremy