Berserker Barrel idea

I was looking at the CellarTracker forum and they are having a CT wine made expressly for members that would like to “adopt a barrel”.

This got me to thinking. Why not do a “Berserker Barrel”? Now, I am just a country boy from Arkansas, so I have no access to where to start this. But I do know there are members ITB on the forum that could help.

Landreth Beefmaster Cabernet
Mills Merlot

I am sure with the creative minds here, we could do this and have some pretty good, unique juice in the cellar?

Is it possible or not?

Just a thought on a rainy Sunday afternoon in Arkansas.

You can do just that through Crushpad I believe. Not cheap @ 1 bbl, but could be interesting.

Maybe Shawnda Hansen, who deals in private label wine, can cobble something together for us.

Not sure if it is allowed to post this link here, but I guess I will get my hand slapped if it isn’t.

Here is the link to the Cellar Tracker forum. It is a rather lon read, but it gives you a general idea as to what got me interested.

ADOPT A BARREL 2009 VINTAGE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anything is possible…just gotta know the right people.

Barrel of Ghost Horse anyone?

He will deliver it to FF#3…

For $27K he will. http://www.ghosthorseworld.com/home/ghosthorseworldtest/files/the-apparition-dinner.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is this guy for real???

I guess I just do not see it.

A few Dallas friends do this though Crushpad. We have a buddy in NoCal who puts this all together for us including fruit source selection, monitoring, bottling, labeling and even sending us barrel samples from time to time. It’s not cheap as our 2008 barrel from Howell Mountain (cab) will have a per bottle cost of $36 and change when complete. But it’s a lot fun.

I did a barrel of 2007 Pinot Noir at Crushpad with a few people over at eBob. It was a great experience – although I have my issues with Crushpad – and I would be very interested in doing it again.

It should also be named after Todd:

Beserker French Wine . . . from California!

.

Pobega kicks so much ass.

Jeezus, I’d buy something called “Berserker Red” in a heartbeat. You could always take out the “Grille” too.

but that would leave you with just pai…ahhhhhhhhhh, got it.

i’m backing up the truck (there is supposed to be a picture there)

Here’s the trouble (expense) with starting from grapes vs juice, paying for cooperage, storage fee’s, winemaker’s fee’s, and although slight - risking something happening with the wine along the way…

Of note, WB would not be able to sell the wine unless they want to buy a 17/20 license off the street (only so many available from the state and that number is maxed) and that would cost tens of thousands of dollars. HOWEVER, you could sell under someone elses bond/license, including myself, with an administration fee. That fee could be ~$24/case.

To buy a barrel from an existing winery - you can assume that it is wine that they don’t want and, in my experience, that means that you wouldn’t want it either. The bulk market is always an option (not my favorite). This would consist of the WB investors coming out to NorCal and sitting at a round table tasting from a plethora of available juice. Could always start here as this would be the least expensive.

My favorite option is to find wine from one of the MANY talented winemakers in the valley’s who don’t sell their own wine, either because they would be violating non-compete’s or simply love to make great wine and drink what they can and sell the rest.

I’m happy to help guide you in the process. Call anytime. 707.280.9326

Who could NOT buy that wine! I’m in.

At barrel tasting weekend(s) this year, Joseph Swan was offering you the chance to buy a barrel of 2007 Mancini Ranch Zin … for the bargain price of about $4K. It seriously was a bargain. Came out to like $13 a bottle? I’d have to check my math on it … But screaming deal there. And the wine is made by The Rod? Win.

That’s a pretty good deal, considering that a barrel at Crushpad is $7k to $10k depending on varietal…

Having been a partner with Paul Lin and 4 other guys on a barrel of Pinot, I can say that it was definitely a rewarding experience but it also took a lot of organizing work and a little bit of mediation between members. CP lets you make 90% of the winemaking choices if you’re interested in doing so, which sounds fun until you try to get a group consensus on everything. Most of our partners were pretty laid-back so most choices were fairly easy, but I can imagine those choices becoming MUCH tougher if you had ten or fifteen wine geeks in the room. If you guys do decided on doing something, I’d recommend that you first make sure that everyone wants the same style of wine - big or elegant or whatever - and then appoint two or three people to head the project and make the nitty-gritty decisions like what yeast should be used or whether or not the barrel should be medium or medium-high toast…

As to what avenue is best, it really just depends on how much you want to be involved MAKING the wine. If you just want a good bottle of wine with a Berserker on the label, working with Shawnda or finding an orphan barrel is probably the best option. If you want to be there when your fruit comes into the winery to sort it and then taste the fermenting juice from the press a few weeks later; then barrel taste at various points as YOUR wine barrel ages, CP is probably a better option.