A custom crush winery is a licensed and bonded winery that allows wine brands to produce wine at its facility, to put it simply. At Sage’s Vintage, we specialize in producing unique handcrafted wines specifically for each of our clients’ brands.
What are the pros to working with a custom crush winery (like Sage’s Vintage)?
There are many reasons that custom crush wineries work wonders at enabling brands to grow. Shared costs of infrastructure, reduced time spent on the winemaking process, sourcing grapes and bottling, to name a few. This doesn’t include the perks of consultation, troubleshooting and on-the-spot collaboration with experienced winemakers and fellow custom crush clients.
Shared costs of infrastructure
As you likely know firsthand, acquiring the right machines, tanks, storage space (and so much more), can set a business back hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions. Working with a custom crush winery eliminates the need to purchase all the infrastructure that is needed to make wine.
We just recently expanded and built a brand new winemaking facility at Sage’s Vintage to meet the growing needs of our clients. With continued investments in innovative solutions in wine production, we give clients that work with Sage’s Vintage the competitive advantage that they have been searching for.
Save time
We know how valuable time is as a busy business owner. Outsourcing your winemaking process to a custom crush facility saves an immense amount of time that could be spent tackling other projects or daily tasks that keep the wheels turning and cash flowing. A custom crush winery’s sole responsibility is to make quality wine that both the winery and client can be proud of. At Sage’s Vintage, we take pride in the end result and aren’t happy with a wine until our client is 100% satisfied.
An established network to source grapes
There will be years or seasons when you don’t get enough grapes off the vine, or maybe you already plan source grapes, and there is a need to find grapes to craft the perfect wine. Our network of grape growers is established and we have the flexibility to source grapes when needed. They say ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ and that holds true when it comes to this industry. We value the network we have and hope that these connections help us better serve each and every client.
Bottling
It never fails that when it comes time to bottle a finished wine, all chaos breaks loose. We know how that goes. One service we offer as a custom crush winery is bottling. Whether or not we made a wine, we are still happy to help tackle this big undertaking for clients. There’s no need to have a big bottling machine or the capabilities to quickly label and case you wines, because we can do that for you.
Why should you trust Sage’s Vintage as your custom crush winery?
Our dynamic duo (Michael McClendon and Wes Jensen) are experienced winemakers and we love the challenges that come with new wines, vintages, and seasons. We might be biased, but we are pretty fun to work with, too. Learn a bit about our backgrounds below:
Wes Jensen
Graduating from Stephen F. Austin State University with a degree in Agri-Business in 1994, Wes managed his family ranch. He then moved on to Agtoprof where he grew grapes in California, Washington, and Texas as well as traveling to Chile.
Wes’ experience as a viticulturist for 20+ years has provided a knowledge base not only of vineyards but the wine industry itself. This experience allowed him to recognize an opportunity to meet growing demand for custom wine production solutions in Texas. To meet this demand Wes partnered with a former colleague and winemaker to start Sage’s Vintage in 2017.
Wes has served on numerous boards and organizations in his home town of Nacogdoches and he continues to serve on The Helping House and Robert Dickerson Memorial boards. He enjoys hunting, golf, and spending time with his wife, Julie and daughter, Jordan who always pitch in to help at Sage’s Vintage when needed. With a passion for wine, relationship building, and the agricultural industry, Wes takes pride in providing a positive, family-oriented culture to Sage’s Vintage. He provides superior customer service and quality to all clients to bring excellent wine to the world.
Michael McClendon
Michael McClendon is the co-founder of Sage’s Vintage, a “custom crush” winery and consultancy in Nacogdoches. In addition to producing world class wines at Sage’s Vintage he has been named as a “Young Turk of Texas Wine ” by Dr. Russ Kane; featured in the Dallas Morning News; and on the cover of Wine and Spirits Magazine as part of their national collective of “Rising Black Voices” in the wine industry. At Sage’s Vintage, Michael has produced over 80 labels for nearly 30 winery and brand owners.
These wines have medaled in competitions across the world including San Diego Critics Challenge, American Wine Society, San Francisco Chronicle, and the U.K. based Drink’s Business Global Masters competition. Michael graduated from The University of Texas at Tyler with a B.S. in Biology. His career has taken him all over the world, from Chile to New Zealand, but East Texas still has a special place in his heart. He has worked with several local organizations such as the Heritage Land Bank Northern advisory committee, Discovery Science Place board of directors, and the former Tyler Bolts Rugby Club. Michael loves spending time with his wife, Senetra, and their son who is an avid athlete and mathlete. The self-proclaimed “Empresario”, Michael continues to re-define the conversation on Texas Wine.