Excerpt from the SLO City News, Sunday, August 12-18, 2010:

Becky Zelinski and her husband, Lowell, share wine grape growing, harvesting and winemaking information with their customers in the best possible way, right in the vineyards and winery, through their First Crush winemaking experience.

Q: First Crush is a great way to make some wine country memories beyond the tasting room, let’s start with your memories of the first harvest you worked. How did it all unfold?

A: Having lived and worked in viticulture for several years, my husband and I finally got the bug to make our own wine. We picked enough fruit from a customer’s vineyard to make one barrel of wine (or so we thought).  We took it home and crushed, fermented and pressed it. We quickly discovered that making garage wine is not only challenging and probably impossible for most people – but it’s also expensive making small lots of wine. We even
had the luxury of being able to call all of our winemaker friends in the area and ask questions, borrow supplies, etc. My husband jokes that our first wine probably cost us about $100/bottle to make!

Nonetheless – we had a blast. The entire winemaking process is fun and interesting, but the best part is picking the fruit in the vineyard. Fall is my favorite time of year and I think the most beautiful season in wine country. I’m a photographer so I photographed the entire process, then turned my photos into a slideshow that I shared with family and friends via email. We started receiving numerous replies from people begging for the opportunity for this type of the experience.  This is how First Crush was born....