Wineries and vineyards have spread throughout the Willamette Valley since the 60s, building an industry around unique terroirs like the cool winds of the Van Duzer Corridor, the Lakewood soils of Tualatin Hills, and red Jory soils of the Dundee Hills.
As vineyards populated the Valley, its Pinot Noir wines drew winemakers from afar, including the French Burgundy region famed for its Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. One such Burgundian is Sébastien Marquet, Commercial Director of Crush2Cellar, a premium winery supply company in the heart of Willamette Valley wine country.
“Crush2Cellar is the only store where you find all major vendors in one location,” says Marquet, “plus materials to make wine, like hoses, valves and lab equipment. It’s a candy store for winemakers!”
One-stop shopping makes it easy for Willamette Valley vintners to peruse products for all stages of the winemaking process, from fermentation and filtration to cleaning and sanitation.
“We also have corks, tin capsules, screwcaps and wirehoods from the industry’s leading vendors,” Marquet adds, “and can help customers choose and create custom packaging.”
Crush2Cellar is a family business founded by father and son Terry and Tyler Sherwood, and Danielle Koepke in 2015, who were also later joined by Terry’s daughter, Caylee Rojas, to serve wineries of all sizes. It shares its location with another family-owned business, ETS Laboratories, the leader in providing independent, ISO-accredited analytical testing services to the wine industry.
“Our mission has always been to support the winemaking industry with best-in-class analytical services,” says co-founder Gordon Burns whom is a native Oregonian himself. “Our methods and ethics also reflect that family business ethos, one that the many family-owned wineries in Willamette Valley appreciate.”
The ETS Labs team uses its expertise in science and winemaking to ensure the high quality and accuracy of its analysis and to develop new analytical methods and technologies that support the constant evolution of the wine industry.
“ETS came to Willamette decades ago when they needed a laboratory to serve as a stabilizing reference as the industry grew,” says Burns, “and we remain focused on Oregon’s specific needs.”
Burns also points out that the synergy of sharing space with Crush2Cellar allows them to learn from each other and provide mutual clients access to ETS Labs’ services amid the broad array of Crush2Cellar supplies. The convenience of the co-located businesses means local winemakers can come in to drop off samples for ETS, and pickup any needed winery supplies from C2C at the same time.
“We both keep adding services and support, making our collaboration unique. Although we’ve both been in the business for decades, we’ll keep expanding and growing with the industry.”
One example is their collaborative courier service, where both companies teamed up to provide complimentary same-day delivery service to wineries located along certain routes throughout the Willamette Valley, including Carlton, McMinnville, and Corvallis.
Another example is Crush2Cellar’s webinar series, where experts offer practical answers to ten questions with well-known guest speakers in the industry. Pivoting from what were originally planned as in-person seminars, C2C launched the webinar series last year to continue offering technical winemaking advice and expertise geared towards Oregon winemakers during the pandemic.
Lastly, to celebrate the upcoming harvest season Crush2Cellar and ETS are having a pre-harvest celebration on August 10th and 11th. On the 10th, ETS Labs will join a live webinar with C2C to compare 2014 to 2020 Oregon vintages and discuss juice panel analysis and what to expect for the upcoming harvest season. Wesmar and Aaqua Tools will also share cleaning and sanitizing techniques and tools in a 3-part webinar event
And on the 11th, local winemakers are invited to come and meet the vendors they haven’t seen over the past year, who will be onsite for live demos of the latest winemaking tools and services, and to answer any pre-harvest questions. Enjoy tacos and Oregon-made beers, and take home some swag along with new ideas for 2021 harvest!
To register for the webinar, visit https://bit.ly/pre-harvestwebinar.
