Wine Spectator: Crushpad’s Assets Go On The Auction Block

The assets of Sonoma, Calif.-based Crushpad are scheduled to go under the gavel today following months of speculation about the company’s solvency, Wine Spectator reports. Those assets include wines made by hundreds of current customers of the do-it-yourself custom-crush winery, who could now lose those wines.

“It’s not clear what they owe but it’s fairly significant,” said Philip Von Burg of CastleGate Capital Advisors, a Tiburon, Calif.-based investment firm that is considered a top bidder. “It’s in the couple of millions at least.” Along with its customers, Crushpad’s creditors include grapegrowers, barrel makers and label and packaging suppliers. Many customers also have already paid deposits on harvest 2012 as well as up-front costs for labels, bottling, etc. Von Burg said Crushpad customers have been calling his firm, hoping to gain access to their wines.

Bill Foley, a financial-industry executive and owner of more than a dozen wineries on the West Coast and in New Zealand, is both a creditor and backer of Crushpad. After moving from San Francisco to Napa in 2009, the company tapped Foley as a principal investor in a $3 million cash infusion in 2011. That same year Crushpad moved into extra space at the Foley-owned Sebastiani Winery in Sonoma. Foley, through a spokesman, said only that he was disappointed that the Crushpad concept was unsuccessful.

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