Upcoming Changes to Website

Well, the time has come.  The transition from chrysalis to butterfly is upon Bedrock Wine Co..  From winery plunging into the red to winery slowly starting to work its way into the black.  The time has come for you to be able to taste and order the initial offerings of Bedrock Wine Co.

To facilitate this change we are making some changes to the website.  No longer simply a blog, bedrockwineco.com will also have the ability to take orders (for those of you who have ordered from wineries such as Pax, Copain, Peay, Morlet, Arnot-Roberts, etc. etc. you will be familiar with the allocation and ordering system).  It will also have richer and more beautifully photographed vineyard and wine descriptions thanks to the incredible job of Peter Griffith.  I.E. the new site will feature more of the standard accoutrements of a winery website, but hopefully with a little less spin and BS than is normally present.

That said, the blog is NOT going away.  It will simply be linked into the new website.  For me, blogging about the winery has become an effective way to communicate directly with all of you out there interested in the wine.  It is also allows me a soapbox– thereby saving my poor Jen’s ear from my completely incessant vinous cackling and therefore, probably our relationship.  Seriously though, I have always wanted Bedrock to be about the process and the beauty of wine, of telling the story of trials and tribulations, and of making delicious wines that I want to drink, but, most of all I want it to be a winery where communication with me, and where questions and comments, are encouraged.

I am not retreating behind the bling of a new website here, I am rather blinging up the site for those who expect a blingy site to be attached to order forms requesting a healthy amount for wines they have never really heard of.  Plus, I like having professional photos of the vineyards better showing what makes them so special!

As for pricing I will say this.  Though I have been making wine for a long time, I have also worked as a wine buyer, and I am first and foremost a wine consumer.  Nothing pisses me off more than feeling I have paid too much for a bottle of wine– doubly so when the stock market is tanking.  So, here is how I essentially decide the price of wine:

I look at the fruit costs of a given vineyard, add to that the amount the costs of oak, glass, labels, my time, etc. and decide a fair price.  To roughly put it, if I pay $3000- $3500 a ton for fruit, the wine will be between 30 and 35 dollars a bottle (roughly 50 cases coming from a ton).  And so forth.  Wines like the Bedrock Cabernet blend, which see 100% new wood from the best French coopers will be a bit more because of the cost of oak ($1100 a barrel in 2008).

Taking this rough formula into account, the wines from 2007 will range from $30 to $45 a bottle.  The 2008, with the addition of Wildcat Mountain and Hudson Vineyard, will see some wines jump to the $65-70, but for the most part the majority should stay in the $30-40 range.

I thank all of you devoted readers who have spent time and energy learning about the Bedrock Wine Co. project.  I am incredibly excited for you to taste the first offerings– the 2007 Bedrock Heirloom Wine and the 2007 Rebecca’s Vineyard Pinot Noir, and look forward to hearing back from you on what you think!

The first offerings will go out to everyone on the mailing list early next month.  If you are not on the mailing list and would like to be, click here.

My best,

Morgan