From Vine to Mine in No Time
Carafe Brings Winemaking Home

By Warren Rojas

Laura Ball and Kevin Sawyer prepare their Signature
Barba Roja. Photography by Warren Rojas

Looking for the perfect keepsake wine but can’t quite make it to the next Sotheby’s auction?

Take matters into your own hands at Alexandria’s new personalized winery, Carafe Wine Makers. Entrepreneur Lamar Brown originally stumbled upon the Carafe concept while visiting his parents in Virginia Beach, and was immediately struck by the relative ease of the make-your-own wine venture. Each one of the homemade wines is born out of a solution of varietal grape juice (imported from vineyards all over the world), warm water and a mish-mash of style-specific fermenting agents. It then takes about six weeks to produce each batch of wine: two weeks of initial fermentation in plastic tubs, followed by around another month of controlled fermentation in glass bottles (pictured at right). Custom orders require a minimum of one batch (30 standard 750-milliliter bottles or 60 375-milliliter half-bottles), and run from around $130 for the fruitier blends to just over $560 for dessert wines (a vidal blanc-based ice wine has proven so wildly popular, Brown’s already sold out of it twice).

First-time visitor Gerda Edwards said after brewing her own beer at the neighboring Shenandoah Brewing Company, she had been left wondering why she couldn’t do the same thing with wine. After an afternoon at Carafe’s tasting bar, she seemed to have found what she was looking for. “You guys are doing it right,” she assured Carafe manager Rhett Orem. “You’re catering to what people want.”

Although the business has barely been open long enough to attract repeat amateur vintners, Brown said he has started seeing more and more familiar faces. “We’re actually getting regular customers buying our retail stuff,” he said.

Meanwhile, Brown said he’s looking to grow his business even more by unveiling several new additions, including a rosé set to hit shelves this March, a late-harvest riesling expected to be ready by April/early May and a malbec set for release later this summer.

Carafe Wine Makers: 111 S. Alfred St., Alexandria; 703-739-5850; www.carafewines.com

Photography by Warren Rojas

The nearly two dozen wines are divvied up into four categories: specialty (traditional whites and reds), premium, fruit mist (lighter blends) and dessert (imitation ice wines). Assorted offerings include:

• Caesar’s Pinot Grigio: a light- to medium-bodied white with citrus on the nose and mildly spicy-sweet flavor; Carafe’s most popular white, according to Brown.
• Classic Pinot Noir: rich garnet color, robust red fruit across the palate and suitably dry finish; their most popular pinot to date.
• Platinum Amore: slightly herbaceous nose, lots of black fruit flavor and just a touch of residual tannin.
• Splash: almost-jammy blackberry merlot jumps right out the bottle at you.

(April 2008)