Wine Boot Camp from Affairs of the Vine 

Love wine? Get your hands dirty!

Love wine?

Want to know more about it?

Like a challenge?

Short on time?

Wine Boot Camp® is for you!

Wine Boot Camp® is a one-day reconnaissance mission working in the vineryard and the winery. Your day includes visits to two fantastic Sonoma County wineries. Experience and find out how to identify aromas in wine. Learn the secrets of food and wine pairing. Work in the vineyard and blend your own wine. Continental breakfast, gourmet lunch and dinner paired with spectacular wines all while you bask in the glories of beautiful Sonoma Wine Country.

Wine Boot Camp® is an intensive, highly enjoyable  12-hour program. Not a series  of dry presentations with an oenophile lecturing in front of a blackboard...Wine Boot Camp recruits work hands-on in the vineyard and the winery.
Watch the Ag Traveler Wine Boot Camp video.

The September 18^th Wine Boot Camp® in Sonoma County will be incredibly fascinating for at least three reasons.

• The weather is creating a number of challenges for growers. Read a current article in the The Press Democrat. Owned by The New York Times Company, The Press Democrat is a daily newspaper published in the heart of Sonoma County Wine Country in Santa Rosa, California.
• Our vineyard mission site is none other than Chalk Hill Estate Vineyards & Winery. Our recruits will intimately experience this ruggedly beautiful 1,477 acre estate. The 350 acres of vineyards is a patchwork of 60 different small vineyards, each dedicated to producing distinctive wines of elegance and power.The vineyards are surrounded by heritage oak woodlands and natural riparian streams.Viticulturist Mark Lingenfelder will lead the troops on a vineyard mission working hands-on, bringing their energy to the 2010 vintage.The wines at Chalk Hill are estate bottled and AMAZING!
• Then on to Michel Schlumberger, our winery mission site.Wow!Michel-Schlumberger has an excellent and well deserved reputation for producing fabulous Bordeaux varieties from the Western Edge of Dry Creek Valley.Michel Schlumberger has long believed in blending their Bordeaux varietals for complexity.
  What better winery for our winery and blending experience? Michel Schlumberger's red wines have harnessed the ripe, raw power of the new world with the elegant reins of the old. The Merlot consistently shows well-knit aromatics and richly structured flavors-unusual characteristics for what is known in California as a soft, entry-level wine. Their Cabernet Sauvignon is prized for its classic Claret balance, depth of fruit, and nuance.Wines of finesse...it's what I love in my glass and Michel Schlumberger winemaker, Mike Brunson will guide you through the winemaking process, sharing his secrets along the way.

If you love wine, ever wanted to plant a vineyard, own a winery, or be a winemaker you don't want to miss being part of the 2010 vintage.

Sign up for Wine Boot Camp® or send your favorite wine geek to Camp. Only 10 more recruits may join us.

Enlist!     Contact Barbara Drady