Crushpad looks toward the Land of the Rising Sun
It was announced last week that Crushpad, the urban winery that is democratizing winemaking, is launching a Crushpad facility in Japan to serve its rapidly-growing base of wine enthusiasts.
According to the Crushpad press release:
No longer will cultural and language differences, distance, or import restrictions hamper Japanese wine lovers in creating their very own luxury California wine. With personnel based in Tokyo and San Francisco, Crushpad Japan will provide Japanese language marketing, sales and winemaking support tailored to the Japanese market - Crushpad’s largest market outside the U.S.
Customers will share in the excitement of the wine harvest through live web streaming reports from Japanese correspondents and connect with other wine enthusiasts through a localized language version of Crushnet, Crushpad’s online wine community. The new entity will also handle shipping and local regulatory issues to make it easy for Japanese wine lovers to receive their wine and will act as a liaison for Japanese visitors to Crushpad’s San Francisco winemaking operation.
To launch the new unit, Crushpad turned to two professionals intimately familiar with the sense of personal expression and accomplishment that comes with making your own luxury wine - current customers Takahide Sugimoto and Makoto Kanda. Mr. Sugimoto has made wine with Crushpad since its inaugural vintage and operates the California Wine Garden and s.l.o restaurant in Tokyo, where he will continue to be based. He also established the California Wine Fan Club, which counts over 1,300 members. Mr. Kanda has also been a Crushpad customer and brings extensive distribution and logistics expertise through his SHIP2U shipping service. He will be based in San Francisco.
“The prospect of living the California wine country lifestyle holds great worldwide appeal,” said Mr. Kanda. “We’re excited to bring that opportunity to the many Japanese wine enthusiasts, formerly restricted by geography and lack of wine industry connections, through Crushpad Japan.”
This blogger is enchanted by the news. Indeed I’m lately impressed with the efforts of Crushpad since their growing pains of recent months. But then I’m enamored of the whole concept of custom winemaking at the citizen level. Enough so that I’m involved in creating the Basic Brick Rhone-style blend at Crushpad San Francisco as a member of the Basic Juice Crew winemaking team. I look forward to our next barrel sample, and bottling will perhaps be scheduled for next Spring.
Source: PRNewsWire
August 17th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Crushpad looks toward the Land of the Rising Sun…
The Winehiker is lately impressed with the efforts of Crushpad since their growing pains of recent months. Their latest news? A Crushpad winemaking facility in Japan….
August 17th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
To put a finer point on it, Crushpad Japan will be sourcing grapes from California for all those Japanese who simply love to drink California wines but found their market access limited. Now they have a chance to not only drink well-made California wines but own the process, with talented assistance, any way they choose. A fine opportunity, in my book.