Back in 2016, we bought a Groupon for a Two-for-One Wine Making Experience ($25), but every time we were visiting OC we were unable to schedule a tour. Having put it off for years, we FINALY made it out...and boy am I sad we couldn't just have used the actual Groupon.
You see, expired Groupons turn into gift card credits, so instead of $25 for the whole experience, we were merely credited towards the now $60 total ($30pp wine making & tasting)..which in the end wasn't worth the increased price tag.
Granted, the owner was a very charming guy-the two stars are what I can give him personally for being a fun person to meet-but the overall experience...I cannot believe we paid $60. Granted, we didn't realize the building was a store downtown, that was our first hint when we arrived this was not going to be what we thought.
The wine tasting consisted of a flight of 12 sweet wine varieties, made by individuals who previously took part in a wine making experience. The owner let us know up front he was not a wine guy, which was evident in the randomosity of the pouring (there was no pallet consideration of a real wine flight)
After the tasting, he let us fill a glass to drink while we made our wine...which I needed once I realized what our 'wine making experience' was...we weren't as much making wine, as we were pouring things into a bucket with not much context, 1. 2. 3. done & ok thanks. Basically, the owner created a genius venture..buy DIY kits off the internet, charge a lot to walk people through the directions, call it an experience.
I really hoped for grape smashing, I'd have settled for scooping grapes/juice into buckets, learning about the additives, wine doctor input, but really it was almost like making a cake from a box-open this bag, pour this all into the bucket (the owner even put most of the ingredients in)....mix, put on lid..ok this will take a few months. What we bottled for home, wasn't even our wine. I thought we'd get to go back later in the summer, get OUR wine, but we just bottled wine someone else made months ago, slapped on a generic label, bam done.
I suppose it is a great experience for parties who know nothing about wine at all, but as people whom know wine & wanted to really learn the process, make something unique, it was too 'box cake' for us. In the end, it was really like we just spent $60 on two bottles of wine & two tastings-as for the 'wine making' it felt more like a 'hey I need a quick hand to pour this here' than an actual 'making experience' read more