Team Building Wine Country Style
WINE MAKER TEAM BUILDING AND OTHER GROUP BONDING ACTIVITIES
The late John Moromarco, a legendary wine-maker at Callaway Vineyard and Winery, speaking of the contentious nature of water rights negotiations in our very dry Southern California desert region, once said,
“Water drives people apart, wine brings them together.”
HOW TRUE.
The goal with our bonding adventures is to encourage active participation, communication and cooperation, bringing people together.
Randomly selected teams compete against one another to complete both hands-on and passive tasks in a limited period of time, all in a challenging, entertaining, enlightening fashion.
BLENDING AND MARKETING CHALLENGE
Be the wine maker! Sell the wine!
This team building competition begins with an engaging private back of the house production area tour conducted exclusively for the group. Highlighted by tastes straight from the tanks, guests are guided from vineyard to barrel room learning about grape cultivation and the process of wine production (and sampling as they go!).
The next component of the day’s team building continues.
The premise:
Your company has just acquired a winery. The winery inventory includes barrels of raw wine grape juice which, through the talents of your company’s “wine-makers”, must be blended into a sale-able product. Teams employ blending wines, along with flavor components and typical equipment found in a wine maker’s lab to craft a winning formula to be sampled and judged.
Once created, it will just sit in a warehouse unsold without a marketing program developed to brand the product, and then introduce it to the general public. So, the wine must be named, a label must be developed, and then a fun, creative 2 to 3 minute presentation must be orchestrated to introduce the product to the general public (and the group). This wonderful exercise requires each team to open their lines of communication and delegate responsibility, while uncovering the amazing hidden talents of teammates and associates! Following a quick overview of the tasks to be completed and the wine-making components and equipment to be used, teams are informed of the brief allotted time provided.
Participants then have the chance to let their creative “juices” flow as they take on the roles of mad scientist/wine-maker and marketing geniuses while completing all the required tasks!
Teams then judge one another. That’s when it really gets fun!
These activities elicit lots of laughs (definitely helped by the relaxed, entertaining atmosphere and wine) and promote the concept of teamwork and communication.
Everyone can take with them much more than just a day of fun and camaraderie. The intriguing dynamic about this team-building concept is everyone is immersed in an activity that is interesting, unique, and provides a wealth of practical knowledge many will refer to in future personal wine-related endeavors.
BLIND TASTING COMPETITION
Sip, smell, savor then surmise!
Begin with a short session of Wine 101 and the five S’s; helpful tips about the process of wine tasting. In this casual setting, after just a few minutes, participants are swirling, sniffing and sipping with purpose and understanding.
Each guest refers to a tally sheet at their place setting. On the tally sheet, flavor characteristics, as identified by wine-maker tasting notes from each of three wines, are listed randomly. Three wine glasses containing a sample of those three wines, a white, a red, and a blush, are placed on corresponding numbers on the tally sheets.
As a team, participants must attempt to identify both the type of wine and which listed flavor characteristics goes with which wine.
This is a wonderful wine activity for a mixed group. Easy for novices to grasp, engaging for the savvy enthusiast’s practice!
GRAPE STOMP
Yes, you can still stomp grapes in a barrel!
The competition is intense, it can be a bit sticky (hoses at the ready), and it is a team building adventure that doesn’t require much thinking on your feet, just stomping with them. How fast can a team of barefoot wine tasters squeeze enough juice out of a barrel to fill a wine bottle? Try this event and you’ll find out!
Guests actively involved in entertaining, challenging pursuits. Camaraderie. Practical knowledge. Wine.
WOW!
In addition to our wine-related programs, other entertaining alcohol-free contests are available including a round-robin bocce ball tournament on grass courts amongst the vines, and a scavenger hunt through Old Town Temecula.
All of our team building activities are geared towards enhancing camaraderie, opening lines of communication, and uncovering the hidden talents in partners and associates.
Offered year-round, the availability of certain team building activities may depend upon the season the program is conducted. Please contact us to create your customized program tailored to your group’s specific needs and interests.
