Grape Expectations Las Vegas Hosts Open House Ahead of Fall Wine Season

It’s California Crush time at Grape Expectations, where there are two winemaking seasons – California grape season and Chilean grape season.

Southern Nevada’s winemaking school recently hosted an open house, where prospective students mixed with veterans who say they loved learning to make wine. But some come back for the social bonds that form when a group of strangers become friends while they make a barrel of wine together.

A tour with “Professor of Yeastology” K.J. Howe revealed a serious approach to the craft of winemaking, but a very lighthearted approach to the work.

“Anybody know what these are?”  he asked the assembled tour takers, waving barrel plugs in the air.

“These are called bungs. Bungs go in bungholes,” Howe teased the group, which tittered at the word. “We use the nomenclature to have fun,” he said.

At the tasting table, production supervisor “The Chad” Evans was pouring a 2015 Zinfandel-Merlot blend made by the staff.

“We usually make about five barrels a year in different blends,” Evans told GBN, so when prospective students taste, they have confidence the staff will teach them to make a quality product.

Evans was about to crack open a second blend. Barbera-Merlot-Cab, 60-20-20.

“Our Barbera blend turns out excellent every single year,” he said with obvious pride.

It’s time to get registered for this season’s winemaking session, says Patty Peters, better known to students as the Wine Wench. The crushing begins at the end of this month, but getting a winemaking group together can take time. Grape Expectations will match you with a group if you don’t have one, Peters told GBN.

Once the winemaking begins, the dates for each task are fixed in advanced. So it’s conceivable, Peters says, that with some advance planning, northern Nevadans could successfully participate.

The announcement from Grape Expectations is posted here (edited for space by GBN):

Now Accepting Appointments for Crushing!
We will begin crushing on: Friday, September 29, 2017 through Monday, October 23, 2017, 1200 Noon to 8:00 PM (everyday…on the hour only)

Email [email protected]. Please provide your top two date/time preferences. Keep in mind, exactly seven (7) days after you perform your crushing, you will return to perform your pressing. We will automatically schedule your Pressing date/time.

As always, weekends are typically the most popular times to crush and therefore the busiest. We encourage winemakers to crush Mondays through Fridays, days or nights, to experience a more comfortable and private crushing environment.