Make Your Own Vintage in California Wine Country

edited by Nan Frient

Lots of people give wine as gifts for special occasions, birthdays and holidays. Sonoma Grapemasters, the winemaking experience, is a thoughtful gift to give a wine lover (short of offering them a winery). It's an experience – a micro-crush program offering an opportunity to make premium wine from vine to bottle, in a working winery in the heart of Wine Country.

Sonoma Grapemasters participants select the style of wine they like – anything from pinot made with prized Russian River fruit to a Stag's Leap Cabernet. They pick their grapes (should they wish), crush and vinify them. In fact, they participate as much as they'd like to, coached by their own personal consulting winemaker all the way through the process until the wine has been labeled with labels designed by the participants. Then participants pop the cork, pour the wine and sit back and enjoy their very own vintage. At the end of the experience they receive one barrel of ultra-boutique wine (24 cases) they made themselves.