Crush Pad

 

The Okanagan Crush Pad - Summerland British Columbia

The Crush Pad is a wine term applied to a facility that allows the winemaker to produce his or her own brand of wine without having to have their own facilities. Some Crush Pad even have their own winemaker. The in house winemaker can work as a consultant or even over see the entire process. Crush Pads have also ben called Incubator Wineries. The term Virtual winery is associated with a Crush Pad.

Adora Estate Winery, which opened in 2003, was the Okanagan's first custom crush winery, producing wines for other wineries (such as Calliope, Morning Bay, Cellars at the Rise, Aces Wine Group) and for its own label. In the past two years, Adora has wound down its activities but plans to relaunch with a new label, a new Summerland winery and new clients.

Alto Wine Group is a boutique winery and custom crush service provider to small wineries in the Okanagan Valley

Okanagan Crush Pad

Husband and wife team Steve Lornie and Christine Coletta

Coming into prominence today is the Okanagan Crush Pad. The Okanagan Crush Pad ,established in 2011, in Summerland British Columbia by Christine Coletta and Steve Leonie. It has been established to be a one stop shop for the wine industry in British Columbia. Their goal is to provide assistance every step of the way from the field to the marketplace.

Clients can choose from a shopping list of services ranging from vineyard management and winemaking to branding, marketing, communications and sales distribution. Okanagan Crush Pad is the first facility of this kind in the Okanagan Valley. Okanagan Crush Pad’s team of industry leading consultants offers vast knowledge and proven track records to help clients with whatever their need is in the wine business. Okanagan Crush Pad welcomes the opportunity to explore client’s needs and work with them to bring their ideas to fruition.

Current Client
Haywire ~ Bartier Bros ~ Bartier Scholefield

 

The facility is not open to the public, but is designed as a co working space for winemakers to work side by side to share ideas and to collaborate. The design aesthetic ‘less is more’ is expressed in the state-of-the-art wine cellar with exceptional wine as the outcome. The look is clean, crisp, and modern.

Snapshot of Services offered at Okanagan Crush Pad
Production capacity (tons): 400
Storage capacity (gallons): 62,500
• Bottling services: cork & screw cap
• Sparkling wine production
• Winemaking services
• Crushing, pressing, juicing
• Whole cluster pressing
• Tank and barrel fermentation
• Barrel storage including topping, sulphuring, cleaning, ozoning
• Temperature-controlled stainless storage
• Temperature controlled and humidified barrel aging
• Cross flow filtration
• Alcohol reduction
• VA removal
• Comprehensive lab services
• Quality control enologist available

 

Raised in Concrete™ Okanagan Crush pad is excited to be the first in Canada to use egg-shaped concrete fermenters from Sonoma Cast Stone in Petaluma. Okanagan Crush pad has six eight foot tall “eggs” to put to use in fall 2011. The Okanagan Crush Pad team conducted research at Alberto Antonini’s urging and came to understand that using concrete fermenters is an old school technique that is making a big splash in the tech savvy new world.   photo credit - John Schreiner

Concrete has been used for centuries in winemaking, but these egg-shaped tanks take a forward- thinking approach using modern features such as temperature control tubing. These tubes are embedded into the walls of the eggs and are engineered for use in concrete for radiant heating and cooling. This provides even temperature throughout the tank and no parts that requires cleaning come into direct contact with the juice.

There is also an impact on the flavour development of wine when concrete is used. Like oak vessels, which are commonly used in winemaking, concrete is slightly porous, allowing the wine to breathe as it would in oak. However, unlike oak, the eggs leave no oaky flavour as they gently diffuse oxygen. Concrete is considered neutral, like stainless steel, and imparts no flavours of its own. The concrete tanks are unlined and they permit a measured but lasting flow of oxygen into the tank throughout fermentation and aging. The tank’s egg shape means more of the cap (skins and pulp floating on top of the juice in red-wine fermentation) stays submerged. According to Sonoma Cast Stone, this lengthier contact of the skins and pulp with the juice means wines come out brighter with higher fruit notes and prettier secondary aromas that you don’t tend to find in wines fermented in stainless steel

The Team
Steve Lornie, Alberto Antnini, Christine Coletta, David Scholefield Michael Bartier

The facility has a very strong winemaking team. The head winemaker is Michael Bartier. Alberto Antonini
is Consulting Viticulturist/Winemaker. He has experience working with egg-shaped concrete fermenters from Sonoma Cast Stone

The man in charge of Public relations is David Scholefiel, who has an earned reputation as one of the most discerning tasters and wine experts in Canada.

Okanagan Crush Pad Facts
Year Established: 2010
Location: Switchback Road in Summerland, BC
Ownership: Christine Coletta and Steve Lornie
Open to the public: No. Orders placed in advance can be picked up on site at a pre-arranged time.
Key team members
Michael Bartier – Head winemaker
Alberto Antonini – Consulting Viticulturist and winemaker
David Scholefield – Wine advisor and industry relations
Vineyards
Owned Vineyard: Switchback Vineyard in Summerland BC: 10 acres planted to Pinot Gris Clone 52 in 2007
Leased Vineyard: Secrest Mountain Vineyards in Oliver BC: 37 acres planted to Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris,
Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Gamay Noir

Admiring the harvest from Switchback Vineyard

From Field to Market is the determine used by the Okanagan Crush Pad to describe all the services they offer. From Vineyard management to licensing, marketing and distribution.

 

Key People
Megan Solley,Karen Ko, Winemaker assistant Jordan Kubek

Alison Scholefield – Marketing and Promotions and sponsored PADS puppy "summerland

 

For a puppy to be considered a winery dog, does it need to live at the winery? Okanagan Crush Pad Winery owners Christine Coletta and Steve Lornie are asking the question, as it relates to their sponsorship of a puppy from Pacific Assistance Dogs Society (PADS). PADS is a non-profit organization that raises and trains dogs to assist those with physical disabilities or who are deaf or hard of hearing. As a puppy-in-training set to help someone with disabilities, can young male black Labrador "Summerland" still be labeled a winery dog if he lives with puppy raisers and then does advanced training at PADS headquarters in Burnaby?

Winery owners Christine Coletta and Steve Lornie have a long history of loving black Labrador Retrievers. Family pets Basil, Ryder, and current winery dog Echo are all male black Labradors. As such, it was only fitting to help by sponsoring "Summerland", a nine-week-old black lab puppy from PADS. Raised to help someone with a physical disability or someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, PADS dogs like Summerland help people in the community to gain independence. PADS also has Canine Assistance Therapy program dogs working with the elderly, children with autism, or helping in schools. Coletta is a strong supporter of PADS, and a recent addition to the PADS board of directors.

 

Alto Wine Group is a boutique winery and custom crush service provider to small wineries in the Okanagan Valley

 

Information provided by

: Leeann Clemens Froese - Coletta + Associates
: Okanagan Crush Pad
: Numerous news Articles
: Photos from Coletta + Associates

Please see Virtual Wineries