Carafe Winemakers

There are Carafe Winemakers in Canada, United States and Mexico – so far!  And each format is different due to varying winery regulations.

Carafe Wine On Premise stores are where wine lovers go to who enjoy making their own wine.   People can save a great deal of money when they do this.  They do not have to have any experience in winemaking as everything is done right at the store.  Each batch is 23 litres which works out 30 x 750 ml bottles (2 1/2 cases).   Everyone is impressed at how good the wine is, especially when considering how much it costs. It gets better with age and will last for up to 2 years, so you have plenty of time to drink it.  How does it work?   Well, first, you come into the store and select your style of wine (Merlot, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon etc.) which are available at different price points.  If you are just starting out on your wine journey, you can pick a wine that is quite inexpensive – more like a wine you would expect when you order a glass of house wine at a restaurant.  Or, If you are really into a particular Varietal or wine region, say Pinot Noir from New Zealand, you can have that too.  The more specific the style of wine the more you tend to save from commercial prices.  Next, the staff prepare the ingredients in a fermenter (food grade plastic pail).  You stir in the juices and sprinkle some dried yeast on top.  This only takes a couple of minutes.  Your first visit is now complete!   Over the next few weeks, the staff take care of the fermentation process and filter the wine.  Now your wine is ready for you to come back at a pre-arranged day and time to bottle it.  You can collect your own used bottles or buy new ones at the store. In either case, they can be re-used many times over.  Your bottles are placed in an automatic bottle washer where they are thoroughly cleaned and rinsed.  It takes about  5 minutes to clean 30 bottles.  Then, you fill your bottles with your wine and cork them using a semi-automatic filler and corker.  It is safe, reliable and very easy to do.  Then, you select shrink capsules from a wide range of choices and use a shrink tunnel to put the shrink caps on your bottles - again, very quick and easy.  The last thing to do is to choose your labels.  You can have standard generic labels or, if you are making wine for a special occasion or gift-giving you can order your own custom designed labels.  Well that is pretty much it.  your entire second visit will take half and hour to one hour depending on how fast you want to go and whether you have brought a friend to help. When you get home, leave your cases of wine upright for two weeks to let it recover from “bottle shock” and then lay it down on its side. Now comes the hard part!  Although your your wine will now be ready to drink, it will need time to age.  Each wine is a little different, so the staff can tell you more about those and any other details.  

Carafe Micro Wineries in the United States are fully licenced wineries.  Although they offer the same “build your own batch” service as described above in Canada they also have many other features.  For example, you can go into an American Carafe and taste wine at the tasting bar.  You can also purchase fully aged wines by the bottle in the store.  These boutique wineries offer personalized wines that are fermented from juices that they import from vineyards in the United States as well as from many other grape growing regions in various countries such as Australia, Italy, Chile and France. When you want your own batch, you have the option of participating in the winemaking experience by helping to start up the wine and then coming back to bottle it, or for an extra charge, you can simply order your own batch and when ready, come in to pick it up!  Many people, clubs and even companies will book the microwinery for a private tasting party.  These are a  lot of  fun and a great way to learn about wine.  If you do not live near one of these stores, you can also buy their wines and even order your own labels on the online store!

Carafe wine makers in Mexico is a unique microwinery operation.  There is a central, fully licenced winery that vints a variety of Carafe red wine, white wine, mist wine and other fine wine.  They import their ingredients from many different countries.  Then, there  are winery boutiques that are strategically located throughout Mexico City where you can go in and taste the wines, learn about winemaking or order your own wine by the case, bottle or batch that has personalized labels.