At Whitewater Winery, which pops its first cork at a grand opening Saturday, customers can create and bottle their own wine, choosing from an array of varietals or blends. Owners Pat and Jenny Higgins provide the juice (called "must"), which they purchase from a distributor. Under their guidance, a customer selects a must and begins its fermentation.
After several weeks, the customer returns to bottle the wine. Et voila - a minimum of muss and fuss, and a whole lot of pleasurable sipping stored up for the future.
"For instance, if people are making wine to celebrate an anniversary, they might want to use their wedding photo," Jenny Higgins said.
The couple cultivated their business from scratch, although they have modeled it on other "micro-wineries" they visited on their honeymoon trip to Canada. The concept is popular north of the border because the tax on retail wine sales is so high.
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