(What's New?) (Winery) (Wines) (Winemaker and Family)

(last modified 06/07/2009)

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FRAUD!!- Counterfeit GAN EDEN Wine

There's a fellow named Simon in Los Angeles who is selling counterfeit GAN EDEN wine. Since I have so little GAN EDEN left, and since I'm not currently producing it (although I still own the brand name and trademark), I have decided not to pursue action against him at this time- it is simply not cost effective. So if any of you are approached by him to purchase GAN EDEN wine, please understand that what he is doing is criminal and unethical, and that the wine you will be purchasing is not GAN EDEN and is not certified kosher by the OU. I understand that he is selling something with faux GAN EDEN labels as mevushal 2000 Cabernet. Please note that even though I did produce a 2000 Cabernet, it was never mevushal, so I know it could not be my wine. If he is selling Chardonnay that is mevushal, it would also be counterfeit.

It should be noted that I currently am selling only GAN EDEN labeled wine, which was produced, bottled and labeled when the winery was under OU-P certification. I am the only authorized source for GAN EDEN branded wines, with the exceptions of my friend Gershon Horowitz, to whom I sold some 1997 Cab and 2000 Syrah earlier this year, and the retailers who carry wine purchased from me or from him. My unlabeled inventory was sold with the winery facility and I have not had control of it for over 4 years. The only wines I'm warrantying as GAN EDEN wines are those that I'm selling now,or wines I recently sold to retailers or to Gershon. I cannot guarantee the kashrus of any wine sold under a different label, with the claim that it had originated as unlabeled GAN EDEN wine, and I hope nobody else is selling wine under the GAN EDEN label, because nobody is authorized to do so ( I recently heard, however, that somebody was doing so, and let it be known right now that it is an unauthorized use of the GAN EDEN brand name, which I'm looking into it, and possibly litigating.) Furthermore, nobody is authorized to bottle or label any wines under the GAN EDEN label except me. The reason I mention this is because it has been turning up. In the meantime, if buying GAN EDEN wine from anyone other than me, let the buyer beware.

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The Liquidation Sale- Still happening!!

Here's how it's working now:

For the foreseeable future, we'll continue the format of the sale, where we will be selling both the GAN EDEN 2000 Syrah and the GAN EDEN 1997 Limited Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, any number of cases, for $150/case, including shipping. These are the only 2 wines we have left in inventory. CA sales tax will be additional when sold and/or delivered to a California address. No mixed cases! In addition, however, I'm selling pallets of wine for $48/case + tax (if applicable) + shipping. That's a lot of wine, but a group of consumers could easily get together to make a group purchase. I recently got a shipping quote for 1 pallet to Brooklyn of around $40.70/case (and that's to Brooklyn, not to the west coast, where presumably shipping would be far cheaper). Yes, it's steep, and it must be offloaded from the truck by the buyers, case by case (well, there's a lift gate in the quote), but it works out to about $88.70/case, or about $7.40 per bottle, a savings of 40%. And we can mix pallets between the Cab and the Syrah. Definitely something to think about. Someone who was thinking about it complained that he could get wine shipped UPS for $40/case, and so opted not to participate. That may be so, but we have no way of doing so, and we've been drinking a lot of good bottles of the 1997 Limited Reserve Cab recently, and $7.50 is definitely an incredible bargain price. I'm down below 600 cases in inventory right now, and I'd love to be finished with is, so that I can stop paying insurance and storage and other fees. So if anyone wants to buy it all, make an offer!

To order: email ganeden@ganeden.com, Phone (818) 505-8618 or, if you must, my cell phone (707) 494-7095 (cell number when the land lines are closed) , Fax (818) 505-8618

We are again accepting Visa and Mastercard, and now Discover as well!

I am still selling GAN EDEN brand wines, but Yayin Corp. is officially closed, due to difficulties in providing Jewish Education for our children. We have moved to Los Angeles, and the winery facility has been sold. I (Craig Winchell) am still selling what's left (a significant number of cases) at the sale prices listed above, well under half the typical retail price. This is the last of the GAN EDEN inventory.

A Tale of some Bubbles: I made a decision years ago to bottle my wines under a carbon dioxide atmosphere, rather than nitrogen, in order to minimize oxidation and increase aging capacity. If the wine is cold during bottling, it has greater potential to pick up this CO2, and it becomes dissolved in the wine. Upon uncorking the bottles, many of my wines have an initial spritz because of this. The CO2 blows off in a matter of minutes. Bubbles can also be an indication of microbial spoilage. How can one tell the difference? Very easily, in fact! Turbidity (cloudiness) is evident only in the spoiled wine, often accompanied by off-flavors. The fact is that many wine spoilage microorganisms can cause gas, but the evidence for their growth is cloudiness in the wine. Absent the cloudiness, there can be nothing fundamentally wrong with the wine causing the excess CO2.

Several times through the years, people have called expressing alarm and disdain about the dissolved CO2 in my wines, believing it to be due to spoilage. Only once in 20 years was it actually found to be due to wine spoilage, and that was in a sweet wine. Recently, I received a call from a consumer concerning my "gassy" Cabernet. I make no apologies for the dissolved CO2, because it's one of the reasons I can continue to sell high quality wine a decade after harvest. Any fan of GAN EDEN wines has, I'm sure, run into this over the years. I just wanted to let consumers know that I'm not warrantying the wine against a slight spritz. In fact, I'm guaranteeing that you'll probably run into it.

I now have credit card capability (Visa and MC, and Discover as well!). I have things set up to ship. However, no mixed cases (the warehouse in which the wine is stored cannot mix cases for fulfillment). Remember, "Craig Winchell dba GAN EDEN Wines" exists, even though Yayin Corp. is closed. The best way to reach me now is email at ganeden@ganeden.com, or on my new home phone: 818-505-8618. If that doesn't work, my cell phone: 707-494-7095. I'm in the process of setting up a new office and relocating the official address of GAN EDEN Wines. We have moved to the Los Angeles area, and I have brought down a "limited" amount of "samples" on a flatbed trailer, so I have plenty here for our immediate needs. I am shipping wine, to consumers and retailers, from the Sonoma County Vintners Co-op warehouse location in Sonoma County.

Direct Shipping News: The US Supreme Court has ruled that no states can be off-limit to direct shipments of wine to consumers. This means that at least theoretically, we can ship direct to all 50 states and the District of Columbia. As a practical matter, however, we are still awaiting word from UPS and FedEx Ground as to whether they will open up their direct shipping programs to all, or at least more, of the states. Meanwhile, the states are each enacting their direct shipping laws, which could make it either easier or more difficult to ship into them, and will almost certainly cost more in terms of sales and excise taxes, since now that it is theoretically legal, more of the states will want their piece of the action. There will also be licenses to purchase at significant cost. For many states, it will be far less expensive for the consumer to purchase the wines here "in person" and have us ship, in which case the California sales tax will be incurred, rather than purchasing the wine by phone or internet and shipping in the manner envisioned by the consumer's destination state's requirements, which will often require excise and sales taxes to be paid to the destination state.

With GAN EDEN wines,the quality and distinction are in the bottle, whether you're looking for California or Kosher!

Solid, dependable, wholesome. These are fine descriptions for all manner of foods: American cheese, baby food, white bread. And by and large, these are apt descriptions for the vast majority of better quality kosher wines on the market today. There's nothing wrong with that. The marketplace has been deluged with poor or indifferent quality kosher wine for so long that "solid, dependable, wholesome" represents a welcome change. Quality wine is always a "plus".

Sometimes a consumer wants more than American cheese. Maybe Cheddar or Swiss or Mozzarella, no matter how good the quality, is not enough to satisfy him. For him and those like him, the cheese world has evolved a vast array of more interesting examples: Brie, Camembert, Pont L'Eveque, Port Salut. And even more interesting, Livarot, Mariolles, true Alsatian Munster. These each offer unique flavors, textures and aromas, and for that, they're adored by some consumers, scrupulously avoided by others. Bold, exciting, inspiring, unique.

Sometimes a consumer wants more than the typical commercially styled wine. For that, the kosher wine world has evolved GAN EDEN. At GAN EDEN, we always strive to produce wines which are bold, exciting, inspiring, innovative, unique, wines which can stand head-to-head with other exciting wines produced specifically for the non-kosher market. This presents a marketing dilemma: such wines evoke strong feelings and emotions. People tend to love them or hate them. That's not a way to sell large volumes of wine, and that's why it's rare in the kosher market, dominated as it is by large, impersonal marketing companies devoted exclusively to maximizing their profits. Nothing wrong with that, but at GAN EDEN, we also like to have fun, to be proud, to inspire others to follow their dreams. And the biggest advantage is that we end up with bold, exciting, inspiring, innovative, unique wines to drink, the kinds of wines we love, and which few other kosher producers make available.

Medals List

GAN EDEN wines have been called the "finest kosher wines in the world" by James Halliday in his Wine Atlas of California. GAN EDEN wines are quirky and individualistic in terms of styling. They appeal to those who want a full, robust flavor, in stark contrast to the majority of California wines produced these days, which are almost clones of each other in terms of styling. GAN EDEN's Chardonnays are generally crisp and fruity, remarkable wines for serving with fish, as opposed to the oaky, low acid wines typically produced in the industry. GAN EDEN's premium reds, notably the Syrah and the Limited Reserve Cabernet, are full, complex and rich. Our reds are often released to the public after long maturation in bottle, and therefore are released later than wines from other producers from similar vintages. This places us at a competitive disadvantage in terms of the marketplace, which likes to tout the newest vintage, but places us at a competitive advantage in terms of flavor, richness and complexity. Our wines are generally not mevushal, but there are 2 notable exceptions-- our cuvee "Les Trois Canards" superpremium red, and our cuvee "C'est Bouilli!" (Chardonnay). Both are exceptional wines for their types, stylistically different than the norm of mevushal kosher offerings out there, and certainly do not taste mevushal.

GAN EDEN wines can compete favorably, in terms of flavor and quality, with nonkosher wines in their price ranges. Just a look at our medals list should be quite an eye-opener. Our current releases won 41 medals in 2002 and 39 in 2003. But just as important as quality to many (notably those of my consumers who are Jewish) is the kashrus of the wines. Since the inception of our brand, GAN EDEN wines have been made in our own facility, located in Sebastopol, California, in the heart of the Green Valley viticultural region, a sub-appellation of the Russian River viticultural region. Until the time of bottling, GAN EDEN wines are generally handled and manipulated by only one person, GAN EDEN's eccentric winemaker, Craig Winchell, under the supervision of the Orthodox Union. At bottling, when others are present in the winery, it is with full-time OU supervision. Consumers can rest assured that Craig, an Orthodox Jew himself (and perhaps the only Orthodox Jew in the world with a winemaking degree from the University of California at Davis, which houses one of the world's most highly respected schools of winemaking), is producing wines to a very high kashrus standard, as well as often being truly interesting wines of a quality which Craig would, and does, drink. Craig, who produced elegant and distinctive nonkosher wines prior to becoming observant 22 years ago, produces kosher wines with no less care than he used to produce his award winning nonkosher wines. The wines are certainly worth a try, both by those for whom kashrus is important, and by those who value distinctive quality.

No, we are not open to the public. Our facility has been sold, and we are now a licensed California wine distributor and mail-order merchant. It would be wonderful if we could once again establish a winery facility and again produce distinctive GAN EDEN wines. Unfortunately, it must wait until we purchase a house, get one son into a good yeshiva, get another one into a quality beis medrash program, and then have the time to develop a business plan, identify investors, and design and build a winery. In other words, it is at least a couple of crushes down the road- fall of 2007 at the earliest.

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