A new critter brand collaboration soon to hit the shelves:

Wed April 1 2009 2:44:00 ET

It seemed like a good idea at the time. A better, greener, tastier hybrid that blends the best of 2 worlds: The cool climate Santa Lucia Highlands varietals and the best of the Calaveras Country’s hot Spanish varietals: Tempranill-AH (a blend of tempranillo and syrah) or Grenoir (grenache and pinot noir) are getting together for the next generation in critter wine. Conceived by the marketing wizards from both Hahn Estates and Twisted Oak wineries and supported by the winemakers, Paul Clifton and Scott Klann hauled barrels of their best juice to meet at the half way point, near El Nido, California. There the hybrid winemaking team blended their wine using the latest green, bio-dyn in the hopes of acquiring the most balanced and perfect blend of wines using green, bio-dynamic and sustainable techniques (all grapes are fertilized with chicken manure, of course).

As part of building the brand story, the Hahn Rooster was brought to …fertilize the Twisted Oak Chicken to create a family. The bird family is the centerpiece and they are the mascots of the as of yet unnamed critter wine, complete with communities and fan pages on Flickr, facebook, MySpace, a Ning social site (The Twisted Cock Flock) and a twitter ID (@twistedcock). The Hahn Rooster and Twisted Oak Chicken were brought together 7 months ago and have since then hatched over a dozen peeps. The cock-cam is on live 24/7 at http://www.ustream.com/twistedcocksbreedtastywine at the Twisted Oak farm where the family is headquartered.

This critter wine collaboration is expected to be Hahn’s follow up brand to Rex Goliath (the 47 pound rooster brand sold to Constellation in 2004). Twisted Oak looks forward to reimaging their brands after selling their Calaveras County Cock Fighting Ring (developed as part of their bio dynamic farming methods). El Jefe, the bearded twisted proprietor and blogging icon, expects the first 18,000 cases to sell out with the millennials in the first 6 months in the DTC channels as well as in retail chain stores that also offer Rocky Free Range Chickens as part of a package deal. “We’ve identified what people want and how they want it from extensive market research. In addition to a tasty cock, they want chicken with wine…all of our wines pair very well with chicken, as well as pork, steak and pasta. It is the best of the cool climate and warm climate varietals blended together.” Cock a doodle doo…and bottoms Up!

©2009 Dregs Report