For all you wine aficionados out there who would like to take the next step, so to speak, in learning about wine and how it's made, there's nothing better (or more fun!) than hands-on experience, and you can do just that here in the greater Philadelphia region. It's one thing to do a winery tour and look at barrels aging, listening to a guide blather on about processes or terminology you may or may not understand, but it's a whole other proposition to take part in the process, the results of which you have a very personal stake in.
Last fall, a group of wine-loving friends and I signed up at the Cherry Hill Wine Room to try our hand at wine-making (with a little help from the winemaster Michael) and learn about the various steps that go into producing that most mysterious and intriguing libation. Click on the link below for all the details.
There are several different options with respect to the quantity and selections you'd like to make and purchase, but typically, most customers either band together to make a barrel of a specific varietal or blend, or, you can sign up to select wines available from the "Wine Club" list. Our group chose the latter so that we could purchase a "variety" pack at the end of the process. The difference is that with a single barrel you have specific control over how you want to vinify the grapes so that you can tailor it to your particular taste. For the "Wine Club" selections, you simply take part in the various steps of a making a range of wines and get to choose from the list for a mix & match case.
The grapes harvested from the fall production come from northern California regions (shipped in chilled truckloads) while the spring harvest originates in Chile. The Wine Room also does open tastings (including a nice spread of hors d'oeuvres) several times a year where you can sample their wines before signing up. This is a great opportunity to see their set-up and decide what option is best for you. I was sufficiently impressed the first time I went to a tasting there and proceeded to round up a group of friends to take the plunge.
The processes you will observe and take part in include destemming and crushing the grapes, pressing the must and pumping it into barrels, racking and finally, filling, corking, capping and labeling the wine. Be sure to bring your own snacks and hors d'oeuvres when you do the actual wine making as there is always plenty of opened bottles available from previous vintages to slake your thirst after such demanding labor!
(I had some technical problems uploading my video of the bottling and labeling process, but here's a feature from the local news a few years ago showing some of the processes, followed by some of my pictures,)
Presenting the corks to be used to bottle the wine.
