Winery Custom Crush: A Framework for Clients and Providers with Alison Crowe, VP of Winemaking at Plata Wine Partners
Alison Crowe was at Bonny Doon Vineyard when it grew from about 85,000 cases to just over half a million in four years. That growth would not have been possible without custom crush partnerships, and the experience of navigating those relationships at scale, from both sides of the arrangement, shaped how she thinks about what makes them work and what makes them fail. She is now Vice President of Winemaking at Plata Wine Partners, a medium-to-large B2B wine company that produces bulk wine and bottled private label wines from more than 20,000 acres of sustainably certified vineyards, with no bricks-and-mortar facility of its own. Plata has operated entirely within the custom crush environment for over 20 years.
She sat down with Lauren Heindel to walk through a five-step framework for custom crush success, covering what providers and clients alike need to get right before a single ton of fruit is crushed.
Custom crush is not a monolithic category. It ranges from full-service, grape-to-bottle contracts where the provider handles everything, to alternating proprietorships where the client’s winemaking team does the work on-site, to specialty service arrangements for programs like sparkling wine production. Each model comes with different expectations, different cost structures, and different levels of engagement. Getting the relationship right requires knowing which model fits your situation and finding the partner who can actually deliver it.
In this episode, we cover:
How to define your actual problem before searching for a custom crush solution, and why the answer determines everything that follows
Why matching the right client to the right facility is like matchmaking, and what due diligence looks like from both sides
How to build a detailed, step-by-step financial model for each wine program before signing anything, and why the model has to be treated as a living document
Why cultural integration is the most overlooked factor in custom crush relationships, and how to structure communication so it protects both sides
What written winemaking protocols actually accomplish in a custom crush partnership, beyond just documenting the process
Step one: define what you are actually trying to solve
The first and most frequently skipped step in any custom crush arrangement is also the most consequential: being clear about what problem you are trying to solve before you start looking for a solution. The answer shapes every decision that follows, and the shape of the answer is different depending on which side of the arrangement you are on.
For wineries considering custom crush as a client, the need could be short-term capacity for a single vintage, a launch vehicle for a new brand, a way to test a new varietal or market without capital commitment, or a long-term production solution for a brand that does not want to own or operate a facility. These are meaningfully different scenarios, and they call for different types of partners, different contract structures, and different levels of engagement.
For wineries considering becoming a provider, the question is equally important. Is this about filling underutilized capacity during an industry downturn, or is it a strategic service offering the winery intends to build and maintain long-term? The answer determines how much infrastructure, staffing, and operational investment the provider actually needs to make, and what kinds of clients are the right fit.
There are many flavors of custom crush: from full-service grape-to-bottle contracts where everything is priced, to an alternating proprietorship, where basically you as the winemaker are going to visit another winery and your crew's gonna do the work, to specialty services. All of those experiences and the service contracts that can be expected look really different.
Alison Crowe , VP of Winemaking
Plata Wine Partners
Rack and Riddle is the example Alison uses for specialty services done well: a lot of small to mid-size wineries that want to produce a quality sparkling wine for their tasting room do not need to build a sparkling program or acquire the equipment. They need a partner that specializes in it. The clarity about what the problem actually is makes it possible to identify who can actually solve it.
Before reaching out to any custom crush facility, write down in one or two sentences what you are trying to accomplish with this arrangement and what success looks like at the end of it. If the answer is vague, the conversations with potential partners will be vague, and you will likely end up in the wrong arrangement. If the answer is specific, you can evaluate every facility you visit against that specific need rather than against a general impression of quality.
Step two: matchmaking, not just sourcing
Once the problem is defined, the next step is finding the right match, and Alison uses the matchmaking frame deliberately. The factors that determine whether a custom crush relationship works are not limited to whether a facility has the capacity or equipment to handle your program. They extend to winemaking style, harvest timing, scale, communication preferences, and how hands-on the client wants to be. Mismatching on any of these dimensions creates friction that the right contract and the right financial model cannot fix.
For clients, due diligence means more than a site visit. It means talking to other clients at the facility, asking for references, and, if you do not have the relationships yourself, reaching out to brokers like Turrentine or Ciatti who have long-standing industry contacts and can provide reputational context. The site visit still matters, but what you are evaluating goes beyond equipment: organization, cleanliness, how the place smells, the culture of the team.
A small-lot natural wine client doesn't belong in a giant automated facility necessarily, and vice versa. You have to be honest about the fit on both sides.
Alison Crowe , VP of Winemaking
Plata Wine Partners
For providers, the matching process requires self-awareness about what you can realistically deliver. A facility that specializes in high-end Napa Valley Cabernet has not necessarily built the protocols, team habits, or equipment setup for a Sauvignon Blanc program, even if it has the tank space. Harvest timing is another layer: if a potential client’s fruit arrives at the peak of your own harvest schedule, adding that program may create logistical problems that make the arrangement unprofitable regardless of how good the financial terms look on paper. Asking prospective clients to share their detailed winemaking protocols before committing is one of the most useful screening tools available, because the protocols reveal exactly what the facility would actually be agreeing to.
If you are a provider evaluating a potential client, map their expected grape deliveries against your existing harvest bell curve before making any commitments. Capacity on paper and capacity at the specific moment that fruit arrives are different things. A client whose grapes come in at the same time as the majority of your own crop may create more operational stress than the revenue justifies, while a client with complementary timing could be a genuinely additive relationship.
Step three: build the financial model before harvest, not after
The financial model for a custom crush arrangement has to be built in detail, agreed upon by both parties, and locked down before the first ton of fruit is crushed. This is not a formality or a general estimate. Alison describes building a step-by-step, line-item model for every wine program she manages as a client, going through every addition on the crush pad, every racking, every pump-over, every lab analysis, and estimating what that wine will need through the full course of its production. The cost structure for an early-to-market Pinot Grigio is fundamentally different from an 18-month-aged Oakville Cabernet, and treating them as though the same model applies to both is how surprises happen.
The principle underlying this is that there is no room for guesswork on either side. Clients need to know what their full production cost looks like, including fruit, labor, overhead, logistics, and packaging if the provider is also bottling for them. Providers need to know what they will charge and whether the arrangement will actually be profitable at the service fee levels the client can support. When one party feels like they are losing money or being charged for things they did not anticipate, resentment builds, and that resentment is hard to recover from in a working relationship.
There's really no room for guesswork. Clients need to know what their costs will be, and providers need to plan what they're gonna charge for services offered. It's gotta be fair and profitable for both sides. If one party feels like they're losing money or being nickeled and dimed, that's when tension builds.
Alison Crowe , VP of Winemaking
Plata Wine Partners
Alison is also direct about a current market dynamic: there is significant excess winery capacity right now, which means many facilities are willing to accept arrangements that cover labor and overhead rather than generating meaningful margin. That is a short-term market condition, and the model that works under those circumstances may not hold as the industry cycle shifts. Building the financial model as a living document, one that both parties revisit as costs change vintage to vintage, is the practice that keeps the arrangement from becoming a source of conflict over time.
Build your financial model on a cost-per-gallon and cost-per-case basis for each wine in the program, then run it through the full wine lifecycle: production, packaging, warehousing, and final FOB. This gives you a complete picture of whether the economics work for the wine, not just for the crush step. Many custom crush arrangements that look viable at the production cost level create margin problems at the final price point when the full cost chain is taken into account.
Step four: the human side of custom crush
The part of custom crush that gets the least attention in initial planning conversations and causes the most problems in practice is the cultural and communication dimension. When a winery takes on custom crush clients, it is not just adding volume. It is introducing a new team with its own expectations, rhythms, and standards into a production environment that already has its own established culture. Without thoughtful planning, that introduction creates friction, misunderstandings, and the kind of slow-building resentment that can undermine the relationship even when the wine and the numbers are both working.
Alison’s framing is that winemaking begins with people, and she applies that principle most forcefully in the custom crush context. The practical implication is that the structure supporting the relationship matters as much as the quality of the relationship. Written winemaking protocols, pre-harvest meetings that bring the client’s team into the provider’s planning process, clear definition of who is authorized to make which decisions and how those decisions get communicated: all of this needs to exist before the season starts, not as a reaction to a problem that has already surfaced.
In the custom crush world, whether you are the provider or the client, having things in writing is critical. Some of our providing wineries won't move a drop of our wine unless our director of winemaking gives them the email that says to. Strong bridges connect good neighbors. And in this case, your bridge is your written protocol.
Alison Crowe , VP of Winemaking
Plata Wine Partners
The written requirement does not mean avoiding real-time communication. During harvest, things happen that require immediate decisions, and phone calls are often the right tool for the moment. But phone calls and text messages need to be followed by written confirmation, both for clarity and for the record. Text threads are hard to search and easy to misread. Email, with the right people copied, creates a shared record that protects both sides when questions arise later. Alison’s team maintains a clear org chart for every custom crush relationship precisely because knowing who needs to be in the loop on which conversations is part of managing the relationship well.
Before your first harvest season with a custom crush partner, hold a pre-harvest meeting that includes both teams and covers the written winemaking protocols line by line. This does more than align expectations. It identifies the specific points in the process where the client and the provider have different assumptions, and it allows those differences to be resolved before they become conflicts mid-harvest. The meeting that seems unnecessary when everything is going smoothly is the one that prevents the problem that would have derailed the vintage.
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Frequently Asked Questions about Custom Crush Winery Operations
What is custom crush in the wine industry? +
Custom crush is an arrangement in which one winery produces wine on behalf of another brand or client, using the provider's facility, equipment, and often staff. It covers a wide spectrum of arrangements: full-service, grape-to-bottle contracts where the provider manages the entire production process; alternating proprietorships where the client's winemaking team does the work on-site at the provider's facility; and specialty service arrangements focused on a specific step or program, such as sparkling wine production. Custom crush allows wineries to produce or scale without owning or operating their own facility.
How do wineries find the right custom crush facility? +
Finding the right custom crush facility involves matching the client's specific needs to a provider that can realistically deliver them. Due diligence includes checking references and talking to other clients at the facility, consulting industry brokers like Turrentine or Ciatti for reputational context, conducting a site tour to evaluate equipment, organization, and cleanliness, and reviewing harvest timing to make sure the client's grape deliveries do not conflict with the facility's existing harvest peak. Winemaking style and scale compatibility matter as much as capacity: a small-lot natural wine program belongs with a different provider than a high-volume, fully automated line.
What should a custom crush contract include? +
A custom crush contract should include detailed written winemaking protocols, a line-item financial model covering all production costs and service fees, clear definition of which party is responsible for which decisions and how decisions are communicated, harvest timing and capacity commitments, and how cost changes vintage to vintage will be handled. Written protocols are the most important operational document in a custom crush relationship because they specify exactly what the provider is agreeing to deliver and what the client is authorized to request. Without written protocols, both sides are working from different assumptions about what the arrangement covers.
What is the difference between custom crush and an alternating proprietorship? +
In a standard custom crush arrangement, the provider's winemaking team produces the wine for the client using the provider's facility and staff. In an alternating proprietorship (AP), the client's winemaking team comes to the provider's facility and conducts the winemaking themselves, essentially using the space and equipment but doing their own work. An AP gives the client more direct control over the winemaking process and is common among smaller producers who want to maintain hands-on involvement but do not have their own facility. Both arrangements require TTB licensing and compliance, and each carries its own cost and engagement implications.
How do you build a financial model for a custom crush arrangement? +
A custom crush financial model is built step by step for each individual wine program, not at a broad average level. For clients, that means estimating every production step the wine will require: crush pad additions, pump-overs, rackings, lab analyses, and any specialty steps specific to that varietal or style. Those steps are then priced against the provider's fee schedule and extended through packaging, warehousing, and final FOB to arrive at a full cost-per-gallon and cost-per-case for the wine's entire lifecycle. For providers, a similar step-by-step model helps determine what fees need to be charged to make the arrangement profitable. Both models should be reviewed and updated vintage to vintage, as costs in the wine industry shift and the relationship evolves.