The first wine to be crowdsourced all the way from the vineyard to the bottle, Columbia Crest’s 2014 Crowdsourced Cabernet, debuts today. But it’s available only direct from the winery, either online or in its tasting room.
In this unique project, Columbia Crest invited the public to vote on key winemaking decisions that impacted the creation of the wine. The result is a wine that’s truly the product of the crowd.
In June 2014, Columbia Crest embarked on a journey to become the first winery to crowdsource a wine from vineyard to table through a unique interactive online experience on CrowdsourcedCabernet.com. Everything from bud break, harvest, fermentation, the final blend, and even the label was put in the hands of the online community for an educational, fun and trailblazing adventure in winemaking.
Over the last two years, the Crowdsourced Cabernet process empowered fans and wine enthusiasts to make decisions throughout every step of creating the wine and through their participation gain a deeper understanding and connection to the craft and skill of winemaking.
Columbia Crest’s head winemaker, Juan Muñoz-Oca, educated and guided the crowd along the way, from how much water to apply to the vines, to how the temperature outside impacts harvest, to how different varietals shape the aromas and flavors in the blending process.
In a near perfect harvest, the crowd chose to harvest at night, create a wine with a lot of complexity yet soft tannins and age it 16 months in 30% new oak barrels.
The result, Columbia Crest says, “is a beautifully integrated and layered Cabernet Sauvignon from the Horse Heaven Hills. The 2014 Crowdsourced Cabernet Sauvignon has a delicate nose of tobacco, dried herbs, bright cherries and anise. On the palate, the wine develops warm blueberry pie flavors and a silky texture with dark chocolate and toffee undertones. It finishes with a bright, elegant and refined texture.”
“The 2014 Crowdsourced Cabernet is definitively a Columbia Crest wine, yet a new take on our terroir based on the crowd’s decisions. To me, it’s a balance of ‘old world’ sensitivities with ‘new world’ fruit,” said Muñoz-Oca. “We loved the whole process and getting a chance to interact with and educate our fans over the past two years. I’m immensely proud of our virtual winemakers’ final product and I am excited for the rest of the world to taste our one-of-a-kind wine.”
Approximately 1,000 cases of the 2014 Crowdsourced Cabernet are now available for purchase in the U.S., exclusively online at ColumbiaCrest.com/shop and in the Columbia Crest tasting room in Paterson, Washington, and retails for $30 per bottle.