It's one thing to buy a bottle of wine for family and friends; it's quite another to gift them with one you've custom-blended yourself. And the 200 or so folks who attend Bin 36's fourth annual Harvest Festival on Oct. 8 will get the chance to do just that under the watchful eye of Bin wine director Brian Duncan.
Using Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Beckmen Vineyards in California's Santa Ynez Valley as a base, guests at this Sunday afternoon fest will get a firsthand lesson in winemaking from nationally recognized Duncan and his team.
"It's a great thing to do with other people," says Duncan. "And you have someone with you who can give you their opinion on your blend. You get to taste the components of the wine you're going to blend. And the real learning experience has to do more with the fact you're going to understand the personality of the grapes.
"My hope is always to get people to know more about the process so they understand how different styles of wine get made. We try not to make it too cerebral -- more hedonistic than cerebral."
Here's how the 2-5 p.m. event will work: After arriving, guests will stop at the Aroma Station, taking in scents such as leather, wood or chocolate that often manifest themselves during the winemaking process. Next, they'll move on to the Blending Station, combining different amounts of Beckmen Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon and varietal grape juices -- Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah -- to come up with blends they like. From there, guests bottle and cork their on-the-spot creations and move on to the design stations to create a label of their own. These wines can be drunk young, or aged if folks want to save them for later occasions. And because 75 percent of these wines will be made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, that's how the bottles will be labeled.

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