Wine Blogging Wednesday #12 - Drink Local. Real Local.

It's shameful. Here I am writing a post for Wine Blogging Wednesday without even having had the slightest drop to drink.

But the Rules are Unforgiving: This time around...there's only one rule: Drink a wine from the winery nearest to your apartment, house, shack, bungalow, flat or tent. And NO CHEATING. If I have to, I'll fact check on each and every one of your entries. Lenn Thompson, July 10 2005

It took me a little while to determine where the nearest winery to my house actually was. It was one of the more difficult google searches of my life. But eventually I came up trumps when I found out there is actually a winery in Potrero Hill, of all places, yes! That's where I live. Who would have thought it. Just over 1.5 miles away in the urban centre of San Francisco.

Here's the scoop: A few years ago Michael Brill ripped up his Potrero Hill backyard and planted pinot noir. Soon after, Michael began hauling tons of fruit back from wine country to make wine in the city, showing up at his day job bleary-eyed and purple fingered. Vowing to add sanity to the lives of winemakers with day jobs, Michael formed Crushpad.

In a nutshell, Crushpad is a community winery, where anyone genuinely interested in such an investment can make their own wine. I am not going to regurgitate their website here, you'll have to go and discover it yourself. It is packed full of information.

I did have some correpsondence with Michael. I wanted to ask him where I could get hold of a bottle of his wine to sample for this tasting. But the venture is so new, they are yet to bottle any of their wine. He did invite me over to his 'pad' for a sample glass but unfortunately, because of my work hours clashing with Crushpad's hours of operation, I was unable to find the time before the WBW deadline.

Hopefully, during the next harvest, when they open up at the weekends, or when they have their next open day, I'll be able to check Crushpad out properly and give a little bit more of a juicy report.



PS Yesterday I did ok, not great, with the Eat Local Challenge. My breakfast of strained St Benoit yoghurt, June Taylor Conserve and Alifieri flaked almonds was spot on. Lunch was a disaster - don't even ask - a toasted bagel and a packet of Lays crisps at work. In the evening I did a little better but still not perfect. Please remember I was away at the weekend and I haven't been shopping at the market. I am eating up what is already in the house (a virtuous act in its own right). I had some imported Italian spaghetti mixed with localish tomatoes from Balakian Farms, basil from our 5-week-old Farmers Market basil plant and Farallon, a new piquant brie-like cheese in oil and spices from Cowgirl.

posted in WBW and Wine and Wine Blogging Wednesday and Eat Local and Drink Local

Wine Blogging Wednesday #12 - Drink Local. Real Local.