Q: I had run over to pick up some cheese from CalyRoad Creamery not realizing they had relocated but saw the “Beer and Wine Craft” store close by. Do they offer wine classes? If so, can you tell me about them?
A: Yes, the store you referenced is a “luxury” retail store for those who craft their own beer, wine and cheese. Winemaking classes and wine craft winery is offered.
The owner, Joe Keenan, has been around the wine industry for a number of years. His 15 years of crafting wine as a hobby led him to buy the shop, which he said “is the oldest wine craft store in the southeastern part of the United States.”
“The winemaking process is like cooking. You can take it to any level you want to, Keenan said. “Your wine is only going to be as good as the juice you start with.”
Wine (grapes) and country-wine (fruits such as blueberries or peaches) making classes ($50) are offered on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Some history of winemaking is covered followed by three basic steps: starting a wine, fine and clearing, and the final step of bottling and corking.
“We then go over to the boutique to do a wine tasting of four to five different wines, explain some of the science behind why you taste what you taste and what you should be tasting in different wines,” he said.
For those desiring the total winemaking experience, the wine craft winery packages start at $195. It takes three visits: starting with selecting one of the wines from the over 100 varietals, returning in about 15 days to fine and clear your wine, and roughly four weeks after to bottle, cork and label. Then taken home with you to bottle age.
“Wine is really a living organism and always processing itself. If you could see an X-ray of the wine bottle, over a period of time it looks like a hurricane going on inside because things are moving around, but it is only at a molecular structure, smaller than the human eye, that things happen. It is all driven by enzymes,” Keenan explained.
Address: 203 Hilderbrand Drive, Sandy Springs (404-252-5606)
For more info, visit https://www.beerandwinecraft.biz/sandy-springs-winery
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