Crushpad plans to head to the Bordeaux region of France soon but a winery in the south of France is also creating a make your own wine network. Young wine entrepreneur Ryan O’Connell runs O’Vineyards in the Cabardes AOC with his parents. The winery was founded in 2004 and produces Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and red wine blends. In the course of getting into the wine business, O’Connell made a lot of friends in the wine business in the area and he’s putting that knowledge to use in a new venture.

MasterGrape is a network of vineyards and wineries in the south of France where you can custom-produce your own wines in the amount, style and price-range you desire. The MasterGrape website includes a questionnaire to help match aspiring winemakers with wineries and grape growers in the south of France who are looking for partners to finance special crus and reserve cuves.

The winemakers focus on small production, limited yields and potential partners are encouraged to visit the vineyards and get hands on in the winemaking process if they desire. The cost of making the wine generally runs between 1,500 and 10,000 euros. Like at Crushpad, most participants will create a single barrel of wine which produces around 25 cases of wine. You can make a smaller quantity but you will be sharing with other winemakers and have less control over the customization.

Registration on the MasterGrape website is free. The bad news for those of us in the U.S. is that any created wine will need to go through a federally-licensed importer and some sort of broker or distributor depending on your state but MasterGrape will offer advice on this process.

By Deidre Woollard. www.luxist.com

A Rhone Valley vintner, Laurent Habrard, located in Crozes-Hermitage, has turned to the Internet  for reducing his carbon print and attracting customers through his web site. Habrard is a fourth generation vintner on this vineyard and decided in 2008 to reduce the carbon print of his vineyard by conserving rain water, isolating the buildings for energy conservation, using wind and sun power as electricity sources and cutting back on carbon dioxide emissions.
Considering it’s cheaper and ecologically better to send samples by mail (since the mail person comes by his property 6 times a week) to potential clients, he created, with the help from the Arts et Métiers engineering school in Paris and the INRA agricultural research institute of Montpellier tubes speially designed to help samples of his wines: Crozes-Hermitage Red and White 2006, Hermitage white 2006, Saint-Joseph rouge 2006 and Vin de Pays rosé 2006. Customers can order 3 samples maximum for the modest cost of 6,90 euros.

This strategy is very innovative – especially coming from a "small" vintner. In our lean times, it’s a very astute idea to attract customers from all over France who might not have access to his wines or don’t feel like traveling to Crozes-Hermitage. The customers won’t lose any time or any money, since the 6,90 euros will be deducted from the coming order.

The site itself is very well done with videos of a sommelier presenting each wine, videos of the property and a good design and ergonomy. An enjoyable virtual visit you can top up with a tasting of the samples – as if you were visiting the estate! Good work!

By Evelyne Resnick. Source :: Wine Brands

If wine tastings can be conducted via Twitter, it should come as no surprise to find a wine-recommendation service that’s accessible by SMS. Sure enough, Hello Vino is a new wine pairing and suggestion tool that can be accessed both via the web and from any mobile device.

Users in search of wine advice merely visit Hello Vino online or text the word HELLOVINO to 368266. The tool then guides them through a simple question-and-answer process, asking first if the wine they seek is for with a meal, for an occasion, of a specific taste or style or from a particular region. Depending on their choice they are then asked a few additional questions, the ultimate result of which is a short list of specific wines that could fit the bill, including for each the vintage, region and price.

California-based Hello Vino just launched a few weeks ago, and it’s not yet clear exactly how its revenue model will work. Partnerships with local merchants or vintners seem a likely possibility, however, since that would also help complete the picture with information—currently missing from the service—on where to buy the wines that are recommended. One to test out, partner with, and take to the next level!

Source :: www.springwise.com

This trapdoor in your kitchen floor leads to your very own tiny wine cellar.

Source :: Liqurious.

Wine bottle plant nannies. The age old concept of letting the plants absorb only the water they need, as they need it through the terracotta, only this time it’s also a fun way to reuse your favourite bottles!

Source :: Liqurious

Got a typical night of champagne-and-cheering lined up? Impress your hung-over friends with a chair made from champagne corks and wire.

The resulting tiny chair makes a cute little christmas ornament, or dollhouse furniture, or just an interesting little nicknack! And a neat way to save a momento from an important bottle of champagne (like from a wedding, hot date, or special event).

Make a Chair From a Champagne Cork Holder

Source :: Lifehacker

In a market where the average bottle of wine includes just 30p of wine along with GBP 1 of marketing, packaging and other costs, Naked Wines bills itself as an online farmers’ market dedicated to "the kind of winemakers who want to spend their lives making great wine, rather than selling it."

The site currently features 18 winemakers from Argentina, France, Spain, New Zealand and South Africa. Beyond simply listing basics such as their locations and product characteristics, however, Naked Wines includes a full-page profile for each one, complete also with their backgrounds, some personal details and their views on making wine. Users of the site can create profiles, rate wines, and chat with each other as well as the winemakers they’re interested in.

Based on what they’ve liked so far, Naked Wines can also make recommendations in Amazonesque fashion. All new wines are sent to a panel of consumer testers before they’re added to the site, and all purchases come with a money-back guarantee. Through the Naked Angel program, meanwhile—embraced by many of the site’s vintners—consumers can get 6 free bottles of wine plus 33 percent cash back on purchases when they prepay GBP 5 per month toward participating winemakers’ wines.

Source :: www.springwise.com

Swarovski crystals have now even come to the world of wine making. In addition to being stuck on the bottles, now you can buy then in the shape of a Swarovski crystal bung, the stopper on top of a new luxury limited edition wine barrel from French cooperage Radoux. The luxury X-Blend barrel is made from French oak from a selected secret forest and the oak’s toast is determined by the buyer. The barrel also has leather strips that overlay the metal hoops.

It was displayed at the Vinitech wine equipment and technology show in Bordeaux and sells for 1200 euros which is double the price of a normal barrel. A maximum of 100 will be made each year and Decanter reports that 20 were sold at Vinitech. I’m not sure what they would be used for, for display or perhaps to create some ultra-pricey vintage. While I respect the art of the cooper and great barrels are important in producing some great wines, the crystallized bung seems like overkill to me.

By Deidre Woollard. Source : www.luxist.com

The latest weapon in the battle against the dreaded cork taint is something called Airocide. Airocide is a process designed by NASA scientists in the 1990s to remove airborne contaminants and keep fruit and vegetables fresh on a space station. It turns out that it can also eliminate TCA (2,4,6-trichloroanisole), the chemical that causes cork taint in wine.

Decanter explains the process which involves sucking air through a box containing a ‘bed’ of titanium dioxide catalyst which is irradiated by UV bulbs, oxidizing any organic contaminants. UK wine laboratory Corkwise performed the trials on behalf of Airocide. It could be used in wineries and warehouses and is already used in food storage.

Source : www.luxist.com

The Glenfiddich distillery recently commissioned UK based design studio johnson banks to bring the maturation process of their single malt whiskies to life through a series of artworks.  The creative team decided to use the barrel as their muse, exploring it in its singular parts, as a way of depicting the distinctive characteristics of Glenfiddich’s five signature whiskies, aged 12 to 30 years.  The end result of the project is a stunning display of industrial pieces that give weight to the passage of time.

The image pictured illustrates “the angel’s share,” the amount of whisky that evaporates during distillation, the words “For 21 Years We Take a Share” cut into the wood.  With so many alcohol companies spending top dollar on advertising campaigns promoting vacuous experiences, it’s a nice change to see a celebration of tradition and taste which is ultimately the thing being sold anyway.

For more visuals of barrel art click here.

Source : creativereview via psfk