Deep Winemaking
Deep Winemaking is Aug 1-3rd 2024 in Napa, CA.
What is Deep Winemaking? Basically, Wine Camp.
For those who are serious about immersive winemaking, this is the opportunity to spend three days in Napa on a technical journey through vineyards, wineries, cooperages, and includes lots of wine tasting. Built to squeeze a maximum of on-site time with winemakers and wine professionals this is a way to experience Napa's winemaking by entering through the cellar, not the tasting room. Deep Winemaking was created for people with a serious interest in grapes and wine that want to fast-track their knowledge or their own wine project. This is the opportunity to discuss practical winemaking directly with winemakers and grapegrowers in the Napa Valley.
The recommended packing list includes boots, a hat, a notebook, camera, and the ability to taste wine from 8 AM to 8 PM. The experience includes transportation for the 3 days, lunches, dinners, blind tastings on Thur and Fri, hands-on vineyard sampling, hands-on laboratory analysis, a curriculum of fermentation management, and a blending seminar on Saturday. August is the best time of the year to catch maturing grapes on the vine and winemakers before they are too busy with harvest.
Deep Winemaking/Wine Camp is hosted by Jim Duane, winemaker and host of the Inside Winemaking Podcast, which is how most people know about this and other classes that are a part of Inside Winemaking.
Attendance is limited to eight people.
Please email me, Jim Duane, with any questions about Deep Winemaking.
I hope to see you in August for the most fun you’ve had in a long time.
Jim
jim@insidewinemaking.com
Previous Deep Winemaking Itinerary from August 2022
Thur
8:15 AM Seguin Moreau Cooperage - Tour of barrel assembly and toasting.
9:30 AM Walsh Vineyards with Viticulturist, Ben Leachman
11:15 AM Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars lunch and tour with Winemaker, Luis Contreras
2:30 PM Rutherford Hill with Cellar Master, Vincent Sfara
5:00 PM Chardonnay Tasting and dinner at Brix Restaurant in Oakville
7:30 PM Return to Napa Winery Inn
Fri
9:00 AM Vineyard tour with Viticultural Consultant, Garrett Buckland - Miller Vineyard
11:00 AM Tour and lunch at Crocker and Starr with Owner/Winemaker, Pam Starr visit and lunch
2:30 PM Larkmead winery with Winemaker, Avery Heelan
5:00 PM Bordeaux blends Tasting and dinner at Goose & Gander in St Helena
7:30 PM Return to Napa Winery Inn
Sat
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM Seavey Vineyard
Vineyard Walk with Grape Sampling
Processing of Grapes in the wine lab
Discussion of fermentation management
Winery Equiment tour and discussion
Blending Seminar with component wines
5:00 - 7:00 PM Dinner at Norman Rose Tavern
7:00 PM Return to Napa Winery Inn
Please email me with any questions: jim@insidewinemaking.com
Please visit the Refund and Cancellation Policy, Terms and Conditions page for further details
Here’s what some of the previous Deep Winemaking participants have had to say…
"Deep Winemaking gave me visibility into a broad array of wine making practices. From boutique custom crush to large scale operations with a global reach. I was immediately inspired to continue my education and signed up for UC Davis Chemistry for Wine Making course. I would recommend Deep Winemaking for any intro to intermediate winemakers!" Skye from California
“Deep Winemaking was a fabulous experience. The sessions incorporated observational learning with some hands-on experience. The best sessions of the three days for me were the visit to the Seguin Moreau Cooperage and the blending exercise. I have taken a number of formal wine classes and these are two aspects of winemaking that are given less technical focus despite their importance. I have a better appreciation of barrel choice and wine style after the cooperage visit and subsequent discussions of barrel choice over the 3-day sessions. Blending was both fun and humbling. While one can learn how certain grape blends are supposed to impact wine by reading, physically blending made academic concepts quickly obvious. I appreciate the difficult choices that are made in determining the right blend. While I would single out these two sessions as outstanding, others deserve mention as well. We visited both large and smaller winery operations which made for interesting comparisons. Hands on experience with basic lab tests was great. And of course, tasting wines across a broad spectrum of varieties and styles was educational and a lot of fun. I highly recommend this experience to anyone seriously interested in wine.” Kathie from New York
“Jim opens the back doors of great vineyards and wineries to understand the breadth of approaches and opinions that go into growing the fruit and producing great wines. The experience shared by the various experts and Jim himself was even greater as we start peppering them with questions, and nerd out chasing a topic down the rabbit hole. Of equal value as the structured agenda itself was the side conversations with other students, learning their backgrounds, experiences, and wine sodden dream.” David from Wisconson
"Jim Duane, the talented Winemaker who leads the Inside Winemaking classes, has a knack for taking the complicated parts of winemaking and making them simple to understand. He's a patient teacher who packs his classes with fun, learning, and lots of wine. I try to attend one of his classes anytime I can." Jon-Michial from South Carolina
Transportation during Deep Winemaking is provided by our long-time partner Napa Native
Questions? Comments? Let me know what you think: jim@insidewinemaking.com
The Inside Winemaking Podcast on iTunes
