Join Summit Winery at Monadnock Food Co-op on Thursday, July 20 from 3 pm – 6 pm!

About The Summit Winery:

As told by Darren Horn, Winemaker and Owner of The Summit Winery

It’s funny, I get asked the question of how I knew I wanted to become a wine maker and I don’t usually have a concrete answer. I am drawn to a memory of when I was a teenager and somehow, some way, I heard about the fermentation process. I just thought it was so cool that you could make wine from fruit. So I ran into the kitchen grabbed a bottle of Welches grape juice and a packet of yeast out of my mother’s fridge. I sneaked a 5-gallon bucket from the garage and headed to the basement. I dumped the juice, stirred in the yeast and that was that. Within a few days the bucket just started bubbling like crazy. Standing there, looking as my 5-gallon bucket bubbling away, it became obvious how very small my container was and just how cool this could be! My father came down the stairs and quickly inquired about what I was up to. His first question being “that’s not going to explode is it?!” After assuring him that his basement’s integrity was safe, his second question followed “what are you doing?!” I told him I was making wine and he looked at me very puzzled and said, “You are not old enough to make wine.” With no pause I responded, “No Dad, I am not old enough to drink wine, but I am old enough to make it!” My father with a bewildered look on his face, shook his head, turned away and with no more questions walked back upstairs. From that day on he was my Guinea pig and I knew it was time to study and experiment more…

Read more About Darren’s story and the history of The Summit Winery at www.thesummitwinery.com