Upschitz Creek

I really like this one, the design, the lettering, the story. Everything seemed to come together so naturally. I can’t remember whether Ralph or I came up with the original idea but that really doesn’t matter, we each contributed to the whole, worked on the tale, laughed as we worked. We may even have had a drink of some description.

I remember Ralph used to make a joke about muskie fishing up north. He used to say that the hardest thing about muskie fishing was catching the live squirrel. I loved that. This story has it.

The red wine we were making for this year had oak powder and elderberries as additives. I also think that this is the wine that blew the top off the fermentor.

You wouldn’t believe how much time I spent on this label. At first glance it just appears to be a neat forest and stream shot. And it is that.

Did you notice on the picture the truck cab sitting in the water at the right hand side of the stream?

The story on the back of the bottle is wordy, it is long, but we still think it’s funny.

Here’s what it says:

Sometimes there are serendipitous accidents… and sometimes there are the Campbells.
It was never intended that the flavours of oak and elderberry be combined in this vintage wine, nor for that matter acorn, grub, squirrel, or any of the other assorted ‘natural’ flavours.
Ralph Campbell approached the abandoned sawmill driving their ‘converted’ honey wagon loaded with this year’s bootleg bouquet. There Colin waited to help stash the truck for the nominal ‘aging’ period – or whenever the authorities gave up pursuit of the duo.
As Ralph approached, Colin threw open the doors, gave his brother the thumbs up sign and waved the truck forward. Ralph then attempted to drive the 8’ high truck through a 7’ high opening and effectively sheared the top off the tanker. Not stopping there, the truck continued on through the building, knocked over support beams and threw huge gouts of sawdust into the air leaving Colin backpedaling in the wake of the sloshing behemoth.
Ralph later claimed that the squirrel he had caught (and was saving for the next time he went muskie fishing) somehow got loose in the cab of the truck and got stuck under the brake pedal.
Colin swore that Ralph was accelerating at him.
The truck continued on through the rear wall of the structure (with Colin now clinging onto the grill) skidded down the embankment, crashed through a thicket of elderberries, and came to a sudden halt, its nose buried in the bank of the stream located at the bottom.
Looking around in a dazed state (not necessarily an unusual state for them) the two brothers realized just exactly where they were… Upschitz Creek.
So… not wanting to waste what was salvageable from the wreck, the brothers have bottled what they could not drink on the spot.
Aged by the minute.
The Campbell brothers, two men who have spent over a quarter of a century… drunk.