Seeking a wine adventure everywhere I go, I was intrigued when I learned about an opportunity about “building” your own wine at Grace Hill Winery, located in Whitewater, Kansas.
The winery is beautiful and has a wide variety of wines, allowing even the pickiest person to have a favorite one. My choice is the F5 Port-Style wine every time. Throughout the year, Grace Hill has free wine tastings to groups smaller than eight people, in addition to tours of the vineyard, winery, and cellar.
Grace Hill Winery offers several different types of events depending on the time of year. The “Build Your Own Wine Day” stuck out to me the most. Admission for the event was $25 per person, which included a bottle of wine. If you wished to have an additional bottle of wine, it was another $20.
After reserving a spot, attendees were given the option to send in a photograph that they would like to have put on the bottle as a label. I chose Tim Curry (of course).
At the event, seven samples of different types of wine were given. There were four red wines and three white wines, as well as a sweetener, all allowed to be mixed to each person’s choosing. After some indecision and a little bit of frustration, I finally made up my mind and chose my blend for both bottles.
Once happy with the blend, it was time to make it official. There were three stations set up, the blending station, where you chose the bottle and they made your dream wine come true, the capsule station, where your wine was corked and capped, and finally the label station, where the bottle(s) were completed.
All that was left was to admire the bottles and say “cheers.”
The whole process was enjoyable and didn’t take long. This was definitely a memorable experience. I would recommend to any wine enthusiast.