Grape Expectations School of Winemaking

Had a total blast with our friends. Been to 2 classes. Can’t wait to go back for the next steps. Now we are working on coming up with a cool label ;)

Really friendly staff is a pleasure to work with and learn from while making wine. They teach the science side while showing you the basics needed to get your delicious vino going.

This is just so much fun! Get in on a group, learn how to make wine, make new friends, taste wine and then take your wine home. And it is YOUR wine!

This place is great. I am not a wine expert by any means but this place makes you feel like you are. Very knowledgeable and friendly. We had a great time learning and drinking wine. Highly recommend this place. You not only learn the process but you get to do some of it and drink wine while you are. The Professor rocks! The price was also good and you get to bring home wine when its all done.

Last year we made an Old Vine Zin which won a gold medal from the Wine Society. This time, a GSM (Grenache/​Syrah/​Mourvedre). Always a great time with old & new friends and it never gets old. Mike, KJ, & Patty are the best.

Always a great time making and drinking your own wine! Mike, Patty and staff are amazing. The instruction and hands on experience is fun

We have been making wine at Grape Expectations now for 6 years. I love the people! Going and participating in this school can be as «educational» or «loose» as you choose it to be. This school is a great way to get friends together to make something we all enjoy. The best part is the end result, which has been really good wine. Thank you, Patty, KJ, Mike, «The» Chad and all of the other people that are our friends in wine making for making it a great experience every season.
Oh yeah, I forgot the most fun part of the year… Henderson’s St. Patty’s Day Parade. How much fun do you think we have with this awesome group marching and playing our instruments in the Train Wreck Marching Band? Yep! A lot of fun :)

It has been a blast to make our own wine from start to finish. Highly recommend

Pretty fun way to spend an afternoon, take a class over quite a few months, and drink… and then when it’s all said and done, you get to drink some more because you have wine that you made yourself! What more could you want?

Grape Expectations School of Winemaking is a wine lovers dream. Where else can you learn and participate in the art of winemaking with expert help and have a party at the same time?
Patti, the owner of Grape Expectations, and her staff lead your group through every stage of the 8 month process which in the end will net you some great wine and a lot of wonderful memories. While some people may see that «8 month» thing and balk at the idea but trust me, you are making real wine. It takes some time. That being said, you are only at their facility about 6 times over that period. After a session of de-​stemming the grapes and putting them in a vat you will return a week later to put the juice into an oak barrel for some aging. This process takes about 4 months, so there is nothing to do for a while except maybe pay a visit or two to your little bundle of joy as it ages. From February to June you will have 4 more session which will take you all the way through the bottling process. I should also mention that you pick the varietal you want to make and the grapes are ordered for you specifically. You can do a single varietal like Zinfandel or a custom blend of your choice. The grapes are high quality products which are sourced from the central valleys of California and the Sonoma region.
I would be remiss in writing this review without mentioning the guys in the back that do the heavy lifting. Mike, K.J. and Steve are craftsmen and take the time to not only assist you in your winemaking endeavor, but to make sure you have a solid understanding of the process. These guys enjoy what they do and their enthusiasm will make your sessions even more enjoyable.
You design a label for your wine which you can personalize most anyway you want. Some people will use a business logo and give bottles to customers for promotions, some use their family name and some just design something that comes to them along the way. At the end of the season there is a winemaker’s party where awards are given for the best wines (professionally judged by local wine experts) and medals for the best label designs as well.
The price of making a barrel of wine is in the $ 2400-​$ 2600 range depending on the varietal. This is quite a bargain when you consider that you will end up with about 240 bottles of excellent wine. We always get a group of 6 – 10 friends/​couples together to split the barrel which lowers our cost and allows us to party with friends at each session. At a final cost of about $ 10-​$ 11 a bottle it is well worth it especially when you can tell your friends that the wine they are enjoying was made from the sweat of your brow.

This was the second year I have done this. They have gotten so popular that they are moving to a larger location to accomandate the demands.
For those who know wine will enjoy making their own wine by selecting the grapes they want, and for those that are beginners will truly enjoy the experience and the wealth of knowledge they provide.
The only thing I will tell people is be prepare to either have tons of wine or get a large group together to experience this. I believe the barrel is $ 2400.00.

Make your own wine in Las Vegas! What a great concept this is and soooo much fun. This isn’t like other wine-​making places I’ve been to that just have you do some blending and bottling — here you actually make the wine from the crush to the bottling. Charlie is the owner here and from what I understand, he actually goes to CA and chooses the grapes to made available. I believe this year there was a choice of 16 different grapes (I could be wrong) but we had to choose our varietals the first part of Sept. Each group makes a minimum of one barrel, 20 cases/​240 bottles, for $ 2400. Last year we made a Zinfandel blend with Barbera and Cabernet Sauvignon. It was so good we won 3^rd place in the Zin category. The Zin grapes came from Suisun Valley, the others from Amador. This year we’re making a Barbera blend with Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon.
We had our crush yesterday — 21 crates of wine that we dump into the machine that separates the stems from the rest. The stems go on the floor and rest in a huge tub. Add the yeast and the other stuff that makes wine *I should know this but I forgot* and they explain the process in detail. If you’re local, they ask you to come back and plunge the wine before it is pressed — then come for the press when they move your wine from the tub to a barrel. The wine sits in the barrel until May when we bottle, cork and label the wine ourselves and take it home!
They have all kinds of events through the year as well for their clients — we went to a port party, they take part in the Henderson St Pat’s day parade, and in August is the awards dinner for all of us wine-​makers. Everyone brings bottles of their wine and trades — of course everyone wants the award winning wines to trade for.
All in all it’s a great experience, even more fun and the best part is having 20 cases of wine to drink!

From the LVRJ — August 2007 /​Here’s a vintage idea. It’s called the Grape Expectations Nevada School of Winemaking. Located at 1971 Whitney Mesa in Henderson, Grape Expectations allows students to get their hands — or is it feet? — wet as they experience the winemaking process and end up with bottles to take home. The school is run by Charlie Peters and Louis Sodano.
Here’s my update: I just spent 2 hours corking a full barrel of wine — and it was a total blast. I was there with friends who’d gone through the whole process — choosing their grapes, stomping them barefooted, the blend, several barrel tastings and today’s bottling/​corking/​labeling. Ok a barrell is roughly $ 2300 — but that’s 40 cases of wine — which averages about $ 9+ a bottle. You get to make, barrel, taste, bottle, cork, seal and label — and it’s a total blast.
I’m blown away by Charlie’s passion. Even more so that he’s so close to our home and we knew nothing about this… people — this is a brilliant team building exercise, holiday gift, wedding favor, 21 year old gift — and more… Charlie’s expertise is in handling the full experience –but if you have more talent, talk to him — he’s phenomenal — plus he’s a whiz at magic…
He did a card trick that I’m still freaked out about…
This is the real deal, people. Cannot wait to get more folks involved…