Page 117 - Southern Oregon Magazine Fall 2018

Being production facilities, all three places are primarily focused on At the end of the day, the wine industry is just like any other com-
the creation of the wine. Label decisions, distribution, and getting the modity-based industry. Custom crush gives new voices a chance to be
wine in front of people is the sole realm of the client once they have a heard in the market of ideas. The growth of any industry is predicated
wine they’re proud of. If you see a custom crush label in a restaurant on the forces of supply and demand, and as long as there is a demand
or for sale in a retail space, that’s a relationship that was built primarily for more wine from Southern Oregon, there will be a market for the
by the client. custom crush client. And there will be people like Donovan, Quady,
and Graves to help new wines break into the market and make a name
The one exception is Pallet Winery, who also operates The Urban for themselves.
Cork, a wine bar located adjacent to the winery, at 330 N. Fir Street in
Medford. Only wines made at Pallet Winery are available at The Urban I’m certain that Linda, Herb, and Chris have different favorite TV
Cork, and Donovan buys the wine back from her clients to sell there. shows, or support different professional sports teams, or have different
She says that it almost works like a collective tasting room for people favorite foods and recreational activities. But never have I interviewed
who may not have a tasting room of their own. a group of people who share so much in common in their love for the
industry and their general approach to what they do.
A question raised in some circles about the custom crush industry is,
well, is it cheating? I don’t think so, and neither do many people in the For all three, the client is the first focus. And while they may be pro-
industry. All three of these winemakers see the custom crush industry ducing the wine from the vine to the bottle, the product belongs, ulti-
as a benefit for the industry at large. It gives new players a chance to try mately, to the client who has the vision for their product. Both Quady
out wines made by serious winemakers in a style that they agree upon. and Graves see what they’re doing as a kind of incubator, which they
You may as well ask a restaurant if food trucks are somehow cheating. mentioned in their interviews, unaware that I had said to Donovan
These are serious wines, made by some of the best local winemakers. that what she’s doing is like a wine incubator. She prefers the term
“vincubator.”

Whatever you want to call it, it’s a real thing, and it’s not going any-
where. With the help of both custom crush facilities and more tradi-
tional brick and mortar wineries, Southern Oregon is quickly making
a statement in the wine world. There’s a very good chance that you
owe one or more of your favorite labels to the work of custom crush
winemakers.

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