Henderson winemaking business lets residents make their own vino

Dozens of barrels line the warehouse shelves of Grape Expectations in Henderson’s Booze District.

While some display group photos of its makers, others are dubbed with pun-filled nicknames, each telling a story.

“During production, there will always be multiple groups of people here at a time, so it’s a very social setting,” said general manager Mike Schoenbaechler. “People bring in food and wine, and it’s a very fun atmosphere.”

Operating as the Nevada School of Winemaking, Grape Expectations, 7360 Eastgate Road, Suite 125, offers residents the opportunity to create custom wines.

The facility runs on two seasons: Californian in the fall and Chilean in the spring.

“Since Chile is on the other side of the equator, their season is opposite from California’s,” Schoenbaechler said. “Because of the distance, the Chilean season is limited for us, so we only make about 50 barrels and only bring in about six grape varietals.”

Each barrel requires 756 pounds of grapes to produce 200 liters of wine — the equivalent of about 240 bottles. From grapes to wine, the four-step process takes about eight to nine months.

Before getting their hands dirty, clients attend a Winemaking 101 class that covers the basics of the business: grape varietals, wine styles, equipment, procedures and more.

After the instruction period, winemakers load grapes into an automatic crusher/destemmer and add yeast to kick start fermentation. After a week or two, the clients return to squeeze the wine from the pits, seeds and skins using a hydraulic wine press and pump it into a barrel.

After three or four months, the makers drain the wine into a stainless steel tank and wash the sediment from fermentation out of the barrel. The wine is reintroduced to the barrel and stored for the final duration of the fermentation process.

“Bottling is the final stage, and it is the most labor-intensive,” Schoenbaechler said. “After unpacking the 240 bottles, you fill them using a gravity filler, cork them and put a shrink-wrapped capsule on each.

“The entire process costs $3,000, which ends up being about $12.50 a bottle.”

Henderson resident Rebecca Fay has been a winemaker with the facility for about five years and said she enjoys the fun and social atmosphere.

“I’ve learned so much about wine,” Fay said. “I liked wine before, but it’s nice to know the facts and process so I can make educated decisions about which wine to drink and make.”

Fay, the Leadership Henderson director for the Henderson Chamber of Commerce, also uses the facility as a way to build relationships with her clients.

The facility has been a member of the chamber of commerce since 2007 and received an Innovation Award in 2013.

“I host a lot of events, so I make a barrel and have my own bottle labels so I have wine for all my events throughout the year,” Fay said. “The chamber of commerce is just as supportive of the facility as they are of us. We’re like family.”

Once the wine is bottled, clients have the option to submit a bottle to a wine tasting competition hosted by the East Las Vegas Valley Chapter of the American Wine Society. The national chapter also hosts a competition every year.

“The national wine competition is judged by certified wine judges, and there are approximately 600 wines entered each year,” Schoenbaechler said. “Over the last three years, our winemakers have submitted a total of 33 wines made at Grape Expectations, and 29 of them won medals, including multiple Double Gold Medals.

“That’s on an amateur scale, but it speaks toward the quality of the wine we produce.”

As part of the city’s Booze District experience, Grape Expectations offers group tours; however, the facility is not allowed to retail wine due to a Nevada law that states that any county with more than 100,000 people cannot have a commercial winery. The city of Henderson alone has more than 280,000 residents.

“We were able to get around that by becoming a school of winemaking,” Schoenbaechler said. “We make a little wine ourselves for marketing purposes, but we’re a private client winery, and all the barrels are customer-based.”

Grape Expectations was the dream of former owner Charlie Peters, who started the business after visiting a winemaking facility on the East Coast.

He opened Grape Expectations in 2007 at 1971 Whitney Mesa Drive and made 62 barrels of wine the first year. Last year, the facility made 250 barrels.

“Charlie was a good friend of mine, so I became a winemaker through supporting him,” Schoenbaechler said. “I really enjoyed it, so I started to volunteer a lot around the winery.”

As the business increased, Peters moved the facility in September 2012 to Eastgate Road, which was three times bigger than the original location. However, he died shortly after the transition.

“His wife asked if me and KJ Howe would keep the business alive, so we hit the ground running,” Schoenbaechler said. “I had a lot of experience in the mechanics of the winery just from volunteering, and KJ had a lot of experience in the scientific side of it.”

Schoenbaechler said they had only about four weeks to figure the business out before the fall season started.

“The reason we’re here today is because we reached out to our existing winemakers, and they all stepped up and made barrels of wine that year,” he said. “Had they not done that, we probably would not have survived. They really helped us keep this alive.”

In addition to winemaking, the facility plans to offer a blending experience that allows individuals to taste and combine finished wines to bottle and take home.

“If you like wine and a fun time, it’s a great opportunity that more than pays for itself,” Fay said. “The people there are great, and the customer service is what makes it. They make you feel like part of the family.”

For more information, visit grapeexpectationslasvegas.com or call 702-806-3383.

To reach Henderson View reporter Caitlyn Belcher, email cbelcher@viewnews.com or call 702-383-0403. Find her on twitter: @caitlynbelcher.