Berserker Day Wineries of yore

Love the new participants this year and they keep the lifeblood of BD going. Also a major tip of the hat to the 10 year MVP providers of Bersereker Days. Todd, Nola, Carole, Karen & John, Larry, Vincent, Merrill, Brian, Bryan, Andrew, John & Paul. These folks are the backbone of the event and I look forward to their offers 363 days in advance. Also in addition to the MVP group, special thanks is due to soon to be MVPs, Jim A of Patricia Green and Marcus of Goodfellow, as they are here 365 to answer our questions & comment on our thoughts.

This thread is dedicated to the offers of the past. Those that are gone, those that have not recently participated.

Post your remembrances and laments here.

I have purchased from 44 different providers in my 8 years of BD participation. Would like to see a number of them back and to wish those well who have moved on.

Arcadian
Art & Science
Balanced Wine Selections
Bevela
Boheme
Campesino
Cave Dog
Cebada
Cellars 33
Chester’s Anvil
Crawford
EMH Black Cat
Fogline
Foursight
Franny Beck
Goodfellow
Harrington
I Brand
Jean Edwards
Johan
Keller
Kelley Fox
Ladd
Lichen
Liquid Farm
Longplay
Loring
Maison Harbour
Match
Navarro
Patricia Green
Riverain
Sandler
Scherrer
Seven Of Hearts
Signal Ridge
Sojourn
stars & dust
Tercero
Theopolis
Vincent
Virage
Wilde Farm
Zepaltas

Match was my first BD purchase back in 2012. Jean Edwards was my second.

[cheers.gif]

I recall Pete that you and I combined our Match order for the grand finale to get over the free shipping threshold. One of those, I wish I would have bought more offers. Sad to see Randy go. His wine was so f’n delicious. Still trying to figure out who uses Butterdragon and Baconbrook fruit now

Past BD participants that I purchased from who are no longer around* or just can’t be bothered.
Match*
Kendric
Fulcrum
Kaella*
Keating*
Montagu
Smith-Madrone
Longplay

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Someone was recently discussing the Semillion from Foursight. It sounds terrific.

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It was really quite nice. I wrote Joe Webb about a nice food match for it, and he gave me a soup recipe.

One of the many joys of BD [cheers.gif]

I was hoping they would return for this year’s BD

That was me mentioning the Foursight Semillion. You asked about BD favorites and I posted that one . Joe from Foursight saw it and gave some background on the wine and winemaking

Also, thanks for posting in this thread. It’s not getting as much traction as I had hoped. Since I started the thread, more people have posted in the fried eggs thread than this one

Folks trying to block BD out after a dizzying two days?

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Ok, I’ll give it a whirl…not sure how accurate this will be:

Beau Rivage
Betwixt
Biggio Hamina
Boheme
Bougetz
Briceland
Cabot
Castelli
Cellar 33
Chester’s Anvil
Coffee Grounds (Eric Nelson)
DV8
Durand
EIEIO
Flannery
Robert Foley
Kelley Fox
Foursight
Franny Beck
Gabriel Glas
Goodfellow
Grassl
Patricia Green
Halcon
Johan
Keller
Kendric
Lagier Meredith
Lichen
JB Neufeld
Paetra
Princess & the Peasant
Rascal (Big Bob Wood controversy!!)
Sabelli-Frisch
Sandler
Scherrer
Seven of Hearts
Signal Ridge
Tercero
Terrien
Theopolis
Veleta
Vincent
Virage
Wilde Farm
Wine Check

This is a very good thread. It has me thinking.

Personal opinion: I view berserkerday as a platform for a winery to leverage to their advantage when appropriate. There are a vast range of motivations and aspirations for participating and most are not shared.

I’ll reference Fred and Judi Scherrer. They did BD11 after arm twisting from Todd and myself. It was a big hit. Then the COVID shit hit the fan and they jumped on the relief offer in the summer. There was no expectation the Scherrer “owed” anything to wine berserkers for BD12. They elected to participate, super duper.

Will they play in BD13, I don’t know. But they don’t have to and if they said “no thank you but thanks for the fish” I would be grateful they were here and added to the texture that is berserkerday.

So I don’t take it personally if a winery decides not to participate every year. We are here if they need us.

Regarding Foresight, good stuff, I purchased from Joe.

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I miss The Princess & the Peasant. They don’t really exist anymore. I still have 2 bottles of their Poor Ranch Carignan.

I am glad that Fred Scherrer participated. From what I can tell, his whole ethos is Berserker-ish, and a natural fit. Hope he continues to participate.

Here’s a list of wineries I’ve purchased from on BerserkerDays:

Arcadian
Beau Rivage
Biggio Hamina
Briceland
Cabot
Chester’s Anvil
Di Costanzo
EMH Black Cat
Enkidu
Fogline
Foursight
Franny Beck
Goodfellow/Matello
Greyscale
Halcon
I Brand/La Marea
JN Neufeld
Jean Edwards
Kelley Fox
Kendric
Ladd
Lagier Meredith
Liquid Farm
Longplay
Loring
Monroy
Paetra
Patricia Green
Princess and Peasant
Random Wine Company
Riverain
Salt Vine
Sandler
Siduri
Signal Ridge
Sojourn
Stellareese
Steele
Tercero
Terravox
Terrien
Veleta
Vincent
Virage
Wilde Farm
Windy Oaks
Winesmith

Thanks agin for all the kind words y’all. No need to speculate why I have not participated in a couple years, Ill tell y’all.

It took me years to even think about participating as a winery as I spent so much time being a consumer of BD day, I recall one year I missed buying the most bottles by 4 or so. We also typically close for nearly all of January and go to our condo in Truckee, time off to compensate for all the harvest overtime. After we bought the condo I bought less wine, then I had a kid and bought and drank less wine and just flat out got to busy with work/life. The logistics of trying to set up and run the sales remotely was difficult and kinda killed the last weekend of vacation. Not to mention simultaneously my wife would be getting ready to ship the January 4 bottle 3 times a year club.

The first couple years I participated it went very well for us, though it was the deepest discount of the year that we would offer. Word got out up here in AV that BD day was going good for us. Then multiple other brands from AV were doing huge discounts plus free/cheap shipping on wine that was less expensive than mine to start. So our sales did not justify all the work to set up and mange the sale. As noted many of those brands no longer exist, I am constantly shocked by the turnover up here. We opened in 2009, and are now the 7th oldest brand with a tasting room of 28 on one of a very few just focusing on AV (and PN for reds) ONLY production. We sell all direct for the last few years, so I dont do the restaurant(30-50%) or distributor(50%+ market visits etc.) discounts any more either.

I have bought and enjoyed wine from the vast majority of folks on Mikes list, most were at or above expectations and for good pricing.

I will always extend my club price of 20% off to any berserkers, just pm for a coupon code.

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Fun thread!!!

Be sure to check out the BerserkerDay Archive forums, for a real trip down memory lane!

The VERY first one wasn’t its own forum, but if you do a search for BerserkerDay (and you’ll get tens of thousands of results) and go to the very last pages in the results, you’ll see how the first one was conducted and who was in it

To me, this is a great story. Berserkerday is here if it’s beneficial and hopefully it played a small part in your 100% DTC by building up the mailing list.

BTW - I remember talking with you about something offer related a few years back and you said “I’m skiing right now.” Damn you! LOL

Thank you; I’ll keep this in mind once I have wine money again.

Hey Brig, not sure you heard or not…but Big Bear is a ZOO now! [cheers.gif]

I remember Joseph Swan participated one year but then had a shipping hiccup with an opinionated customer and said something to the effect of “I think this is a bit too much for a small winery like us.”
I was sad to see them go.

Jemrose was another good one, but I think the owner moved or retired.

Oh man I get the Swan thing, especially since I set up all the DTC stuff back in the day when I worked for Rod, ‘05-‘07 as DTC manager/assistant winemaker. Sometimes its not even the fault of the winery, but the winery has to fix it. I just got notified of a missing package claim for 4 bottles from mid Dec! UPS is great most of the time but when they fuck up it sucks! Just shipped a bike they must have dropped off the truck, ah now to insurance claims,arg.

There was this guy named John Holdredge, made Pinot and Shioppettino. Used to post here regularly. One day he picked up his fishing pole and nobody heard from him again.

Princess and Peasant, RIP
West of Temperance, I still buy from them. Good guys, great wines.