If you’re into wine, then Diageo’s “Crush Camp,” is for you. Go behind the scenes of growing, harvesting, picking, crushing and blending grapes to see what it takes to go from grape to bottle, from vine to wine. Diageo takes you through a few of its vineyards in Sonoma and Napa Valley, California – and fear not, there’s more drinking involved than manual labour.
Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines
With annual 3,250,000 cases of wine made every year, Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines is one of the top wine companies in North America. Based in the Carneros region of Napa Valley and also in Sonoma, California, Diageo is the parent company of many vineyards in the area including Beaulieu, Sterling & Sterling Vintners, Chalone, Solaris, Jade Mountain and many others. As a major importer of Bordeaux to the United States, Diageo’s portfolio boasts of wines from Bordeaux, Burgandy and California.
Crush Camp!
This three day camp gives wine lovers, vinophiles, oenophiles, wine aficionados, connoisseurs, vine hounds and foodies to work the vines with professional winemakers.
Campers learn about the process of wine making and begin with learning how to pick grapes for wine. One process learnt is how to use a refractometer to measure the sugar content in the grape before picking and harvesting. You get your very own box and knife to pick grapes and get down and dirty in Californian terroir.
Campers take part in some of the moving and sorting grapes from bins into crushers and have the opportunity to crush a few with bare hands hands. You learn about aging techniques, filtering out sediments from bottles, the type of wood used for barrels and get to taste different types straight from the barrel.
Last but not least – you get to try your hand at blending and creating your own red wine at Beaulieu or Sterling Vineyards, which is then bottled for you to take home.
For two nights, four glorious meals and all the wine you can taste, the cost is $950 per person. For more information Diageo Wines, please visit: http://www2.diageowines.com .
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