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XXwines's Featured Winemaker: Tony Coturri

Coturri Winery, Glen Ellen, CA

The Hidden Gem:

Over the last number of years, we have been honored to work in different capacities with winemaker Tony Coturri of Coturri Winery. The family-owned winery in nestled far up in the hills outside of Sonoma, CA. The wine tourist would have to go to the Coturri website and make an appointment for a tasting, but it would be a life-changing experience. Tony, like his father before him and his young and talented son Niccolo, makes a bold portfolio of wines that have no peers.

"Just Grapes"

Aside from their taste, Coturri wines are both organic and sulfite-free. Tony describes his wines as "just grapes". Natural fermentation and no chemical additives are Coturri signatures. Paul Gleason of E Environmental Magazine described it well when he wrote:
"Tony Coturri has certified organic vineyards and uses no chemicals at any point in his winemaking. But he doesn't use the word "organic" on the Coturri Winery labels. "In all honesty, wine consumers have not embraced quality and organic in the same line yet. They still have the attitude that organic wine is a lower quality than what you can get in a conventional wine. It's a stigma," he explains. But his reasoning for not carrying an organic label goes beyond market prejudice. In his view, organic practices are the means to a great wine, and a wine's quality, not a USDA symbol on the label, should capture the attention. "If you're strictly looking for organically grown, no-sulfite wine, then you're looking at what I consider a lesser-quality product. These wines have to stand on their own merits," says Coturri."

Tony in His Own Words:

To hear about Coturri Wines in his own voice, click on the video below. This is on of the first videos in his popular video blog on his winery web page.




Cap'n Bill Bones says, "Coturri grog be not t' be missed"

Try some of the Coturri wines for yourself, their certain to amaze!
click here.

If you're already on Facebook, you can join the Coturri Fan Page by clicking on the Facebook link below.

30proof partners to launch Double Crossed Wines

After many months of close collaboration with the wine distribution company, Double Crossed Wines, 30proof is launching a new online wine store. The new store will feature wines that are not available around the country because they come from small, boutique wineries that don't have the "reach" of the big wineries.
Small-batch, hand-crafted wines being sold for amazing prices- something to beat those recessionary blues. 30proof has helped many clients launch their own online stores, but now we launch one of our own. The store goes live March 2009!
Cheers!

Making a difference in Uganda with the web

Two weeks ago, the mother of two of our founding partners and soon-to-be mother-in-law of our managing partner called us from Kampala, Uganda. Susan Evans is there for a 5 week professional trip to help one of the main hospitals there in the capital of Uganda set up a Social Work program. She will be returning later this week and opening up her private practice after many years working for public schools in Illinois.

She is a humanitarian at heart and saw a chance to help an individual directly. One girl she came across is 13 years-old and suffering from a lethal yet treatable bone cancer for which her family has no chance of being able to pay for chemo treatments. The entire set of treatments would only cost $600 and have a good chance of saving her life. 3oproof set up a donation site and information and the response was overwhelming. In under a week, we raised more than $1500 in small donations. This money will help several other patients directly. The amount keeps growing. Susan has set up an account with the social work program in which the money will continue to be sent after she leaves late this week. For now, the information is available at her web page.


After this week, Susan's progress will be available on her main page at SusanEvansLCSW.com.

Good Job Susan!

-30proof team

Here is the current amount raised:

30proof Releases GravityBrew.com!

Whew! It's been a long ride.

After quite a lot of organizing, planning, research, and beer, we're happy to be the proud parents of GravityBrew.com.

Gravity Brew is an internet TV show dedicated to the art of beer. We'll be speaking to the most influential and greatest brewers in the world. Starting in our own backyard, we visited San Francisco's legendary brewery, Anchor Brewing to speak with owner and brewmaster, Fritz Maytag. Our newest shows involve Linden St. Brewing in Oakland, CA and beer legend Dean Biersch. More to come!

In the meantime, read about us at the Oakland Tribune beer column written by William Brand.

If you like beer, you'll love us.

GravityBrew.com

Quick Note!: Innovative Grocer

30proof has officially renamed its grocery product to Innovative Grocer. You can visit the web page at InnovativeGrocer.com. Keep checking back for updates. Or watch our intro video below.

Happy Shopping!

The "WineFather" movies

Artisan winemaker and natural wines guru, Tony Coturri, has used the power of family and the internet to start gathering attention for his Glen Ellen winery, Coturri Winery. We redesigned the old website of the winery and brought it more within the aesthetic of the winery. Mr. Coturri provided the rest. With the help of his daughter, he is launching a string of videos as a "video-blog". Every day or so, he will be posting a new video and each video will deal with an element of natural wines and the process of making them. He will also display some of the high-end library wines that the winery has stored away in its hillside wine cellar. The winery does not have public tastings and are available by appointment only. So even if you can not make your way up into the hills of rural northern California, you can still sit down and discuss wine with Tony Coturri. He will discuss topics such as food and wine pairings, organic wine growing, biodynamic principles and the joy of wine.

This is one of our favorite things that a client has ever done with the technology that we helped them create.

Keep checking back each day at www.CoturriWinery.com.

Home Town Stores Online is the newest entity of 30proof

The newest effort from 30proof is a company that creates websites for independent grocers. We are striving to have all of the same features in these sites that the largest grocery chains offer their customers.


The biggest change in online usage has been for the age group 54-60. 77% of these adults have internet access at home and 79% of them are making buying decisions or looking up information about weather or other information. We are now creating convenient, affordable way for grocery stores to have their own community-focused web site. Each site is full of information and benefits just for local people. Local events are automatically updated on your site along with local news, weather, and even a ‘Gas Price Watch’ which finds the cheapest fuel in town for the benefit of loyal customers.

The design of these web sites make sure that no effort is required on the part the store or its employees. It gives customers access to over 80 manufacturers coupons daily, a recipe search with over 1.5 million recipes.

If you want to know more about Hometown Stores Online, call us at (510) 922-9885 or visit HomeTownStoresOnline.com.

The Eddie Van Halen of Winemaking!

This is a documentary about Tony Coturri, the maverick winemaker and owner of Coturri Winery, and his mission to sell sulfite-free, organic natural wines to the New York Market. Tony is one of our cherished clients at 30proof. Enjoy!

Our Client on NPR

Our Client, Bernie Krause, was on the recent episode of the NPR program, Living on Earth. He was being interviewed about his album, A Wild Christmas. This is no regular holiday album, it is made exclusively from the sounds of animals. Collected from one of the largest collection of natural sounds, it is an amazingly intricate piece of music that was completed in 1991. Although it sold many albums in the 1990's, it has been out of print for several years. Now it is available for electronic download on the Wild Sanctuary website due to their partnership with 30proof. Happy Holidays!

Just in Time for the Holidays...

30proof has just completed a website for an IGA in Robinson, Illinois. It is owned by father and son, Rick and Bob Rynke. It is one of those special hometown stores that caters to the community. Rick Rynke won the IGA Retailer of the Year in 2007, not a small accomplishment since there are over 2500 IGA stores around the world. This honor was also bestowed upon our client Kirby Foods. Right now it is the holidays, so they are busy selling turkeys and stuffing, but we hope they enjoy their new web site. The site will go live the day after Thanksgiving at RobinsonIGA.com

(The site also has many new design features that are also reflected on the Kirby Food's store's webpage at RoundBarnIGA.com)

Making Mexican Wine Better

The Robledo Family Winery in Napa, California has been working with 30proof for the last 6 months creating a new look for their growing website. The finished product was launched today and the full online store will be launched later. The image above is the new site and the image below was the website they have had since early 2001. They are now selling over 20,000 cases per year and we are honored to be part of their growth. Visit them and see what they are all about!

Community Involment, Aisle 5

After months of working with the grocery company Kirby Foods to create websites for each of their 18 stores, the project is finally accomplished. Kirby Foods operates IGA stores and they previously only had a corporate website, but nothing for the individual stores. Early this year, they asked us to come up with a new concept for them. We presented "Community Sites". The idea would be to make a "portal" or information source that was specific for that town. Local news, weather, gas prices, events, and, of course, the deals in the stores were the first things placed on each of the sites.

Since then, they are now offering web-only coupons and other promotional items. Customers can see the weekly as soon as they are public (Saturday night at midnight) and beat the other shoppers who have to wait for their Sunday morning paper. Kirby foods has begun advertising their new store websites on radio, TV and print. We are excited to continue working with Kirby Foods.

John Lamkin, co-owner of Kirby Foods had this to say about the new websites:
"Several years ago we knew we needed a web site for our
customers but had no idea what it should look like. We hired another company, before 30proof, that gave us a web site about as interesting as watching grass grow. 30proof knew what we wanted with us telling them. We have been very happy with the work they have done and the direction that are taking us."

30proof's New Home

This is our new land of residence. Since we have spend the last few years operating from two separate parts of the country, being united in San Francisco is a great opportunity for us. Sam made the drive across the country earlier this month and I moved about an hour's drive south from Sonoma. We are enjoying living in the city and working with our clients throughout Northern California, the Midwest and the rest of the country. Don't forget that our contact information has also changed:
30proof San Francisco
P.O. Box 7775
San Francisco, CA 94120
800.915.7834
415.839.9987
hello@30proof.com

Go ahead, give us a call.
-Jesse

30proof on BBC International Radio

30proof was mentioned on this week's BBC International Radio by Wild Sanctuary's Bernie Krause.
Bernie Krause was asked to be on to talk about 30proof's newest project: sound on Google Earth. See more at: http://earth.wildsanctuary.com.

Click here to listen to the interview.

30proof starts a partnership with Kirby Foods

30proof has recently launched a partnership with Kirby Foods of Champaign, Il. Kirby owns 13 IGA grocery stores in Illinois and Indiana. We will be making an individual webpage for each store. Check back as we keep developing it.

Jennell ran 12 miles!

Jennell Haynes, a 30proof founding partner, has reached the 12 mile mark in her training for her first marathon. She is running for the Team in Training program. To read more about it go to her website.

New site launches!!! Coming in July.

We are proud to announce a new line of websites coming this July! We are beginning the process of individual websites for a large chain of IGA grocery stores throughout Illinois and Indiana, a new layer of Natural Sound for Google Earth (commissioned by Wild Sanctuary, the largest collection of nature sounds in private hands), a destination travel website for Odyssey Travel in Sonoma CA, an e-commerce website for Coturri Winery in Glen Ellen CA, and a portfolio site for the talented architect Robert Baumann based in Sonoma CA.

Keep checking back with us as we develop and launch these sites... Happy Fourth of July!

- Jesse Evans

You need to get away!

Today we signed on to do a new website for Stephanie Shackelford, owner of Odyssey Travel in Sonoma, CA. She has lots of experience in her field of helping people find their perfect vacation get-aways. She also organizes tour groups for wineries and radio stations. Her current site is at Team Odyssey. Our new remake of her site should be live by late July, but don't wait that long to look her up and book a trip!
- Jesse Evans

Keva announces its 2008 collections

Just before their website created for Keva jewelry is released, Keva announced today that their 2008 collection will contain pure platinum bangles. The work is already becoming a sought after collection in LA. On a personal level, Lead Designer, Keva Clements, shies away from attention and prefers to keep grounded and focused on creating classic work.

- Jesse Evans