Your VINIV winemaking journey begins once you have decided to reserve one or several barrels for production. A down payment is required to confirm your allocation, with the balance due just before bottling in May 2021. We accept orders anytime between September 2019 and November 2020, subject to wine availability. The earlier that you do this the better as allocations are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

VINIV will organise a brief planning call with you to further discuss your experience, understand your desired wine style and level of involvement. VINIV members typically come to work on their blend once during the winemaking cycle either during a private blending session with our winemakers or during a blending event.

Seeing for yourself the diversity of ‘terroir’ across vineyards in Bordeaux’s best appellations is an instructive journey and helps you understand how each vineyard can influence your wine. These visits, which VINIV will help you organise, are optional and can take place when you come to Bordeaux to work on your blend.

Your private blending session is ultimately the most important, enjoyable and educational step in your winemaking journey. These sessions take place between April 2020 and February 2021 and how you do this depends on how you want to live the experience. If you want to do this privately, we can arrange a private blending session with our winemakers to take place at VINIV. We also host blending events – at VINIV, in the UK and US – which allow you to have a private blending session with winemakers and meet other members. If you can’t make it to Bordeaux or to our events outside of France, we can organise virtual blending sessions where our winemakers prepare and send you blend options based on your preferences.

How and when you work with our design team will be outlined in your wine plan discussion. The deadline for label design completion is February 2021.

Bringing your wine home is the last step of your winemaking journey. Your wine will be bottled and ready to ship in the September-October timeframe of 2021. Depending on where you live, there are different transport costs, sales tax (VAT) or import duties to consider. The VINIV team will contact you about the shipping needs and costs for you and your group.