In The Hood: April

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Put A Cork In It 

Make, Bottle, Label Your Own Wine At Winemakers in Auburn

By Janis Dice

Venues to make your own beer are abundant in the Sacramento region, but a new twist on the brew-it-yourself business, uncorked by four friends in the foothills, now offers Northern California’s first on-premises winemaking enterprise.
    Longtime friends and married couples — now business partners — Tony and Rita Harrington and Cliff and Jerri Swesey opened Winemakers in Auburn two years ago, offering a tasting bar, a line of bottled wines and the facilities and equipment for individuals to produce their own vintages.
    On their first visit, customers tie on an apron then taste a variety of wines to determine which juices will be the foundation for fermenting traditional port, red and white vintages or lighter wine-cooler blends. The grape juice, says Tony Harrington, is supplied by a distributor in Canada that buys harvests from fine vineyards around the world.
    Once the novice wine makers choose their juice, they’re guided through the mixing process, adding yeast to begin the effervescent transformation from fruit of the vine to heady wine and adding oak chips to some brews to imbue that customary aged-in-wood muskiness.

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