Fifty-four years ago, Bill Rosenberg began building an international billion dollar empire out of donuts, founding the Dunkin Donuts Franchise concept. Now, his wife, Ann, is creating a new franchise sensation with an innovative wine-making concept that combines a distinctive leisure pursuit with an attractive business opportunity.

Let’s Make Wine, with two successful corporate locations currently operating in Florida and Colorado, “uncorks” the mystery of winemaking, proving that the average person can easily experience the fun of making and bottling their own personal wine. Visitors to Let’s Make Wine discover that, contrary to the famously funny “I Love Lucy” episode, making wine doesn’t have to involve rolling up your pant legs and stomping on grapes.

“The concept of winemaking has been around for thousands of years. We’ve taken this ancient art and made it a fun experience. We encourage entrepreneurship, a pride of ownership, and a deep commitment to the art of winemaking,” said Ann Rosenberg, Let’s Make Wine Co-Founder and CEO, noting that a stand-alone Let’s Make Wine location in Delray Beach , Fla. represents the prototype for the franchise offering.

Currently, Let’s Make Wine is offering Franchise Opportunities in Florida , Colorado and Texas , which have laws and regulations conducive to the winemaking industry. However, Let’s Make Wine will consider development outside of those three states if multi-unit or area developers are interested in opening several locations. In addition, Let’s Make Wine will contact interested, potential candidates from additional states as it expands its franchise offering in the future.

The Experience …
To start the winemaking process, trained experts at the store help customers choose from among 24 different varieties of wine and provide them with the necessary ingredients. After customers mix the ingredients together and the wine is ready for fermentation, Let’s Make Wine’s professionally-trained experts take over. About 30 days later, customers return to bottle their wine and design their labels. The complete experience is approximately $11 to $14 per bottle, or around $320 for 25 to 30 bottles, depending on the variety selected.

Let’s Make Wine appeals to individuals and especially for group outings, where friends or co-workers gather to create their own personal wine collections, or to give them away as gifts to friends, family or clients. Let’s Make Wine is ideal for corporate outings or bridal parties, where couples can create personalized bottles to give guests at their wedding.

'Classy’ Franchise
Firmly grounded in franchising, Rosenberg says she received an “MBA in franchising” every year by virtue of spending 30 years with her husband Bill, who passed away in 2002 at age 86. Although Bill Rosenberg made his fortune founding Dunkin' Donuts, he’s actually better known for founding the International Franchise Association (IFA) in 1959. Ann remains active in the IFA, the largest member organization in the franchise industry.

With a strategic plan for U.S. franchise expansion in place, Let’s Make Wine has all the makings for the next “franchise brand empire:” a successful, high-volume model location; a strong management team with experts infranchise operations and in wine; and a natural franchise industry spokesperson in Ann Rosenberg. Mostimportantly, it offers an exceptional Franchise Opportunity that presents a distinctive concept in the growing wine industry.

As part of their Franchising strategy, Rosenberg and her partner, Tom DeRossett (Co-Founder and Chairman of Let’s Make Wine, LLC), are in the process of planting vineyards and opening wineries in two states, which will allow them to eventually provide additional juice varietals to the Franchises from their own vineyards, including: Montezuma Vineyards and Restaurants in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, which will be the highest elevation vineyard in the United States; and the historic 1810 Country Inn and Winery in Thomson, Georgia, which will produce traditional wines of the South and some new varieties.

Stepping Up the Concept
Rosenberg ’s objective is to do with wine what her legendary late husband did with donuts – take a business that’s primarily run loosely by independent mom-and-pop owners and “step-it-up” several notches with a consistent high-quality franchise model.

It all started about two years ago when DeRossett, an inventor/successful independent businessman and longtime friend of Rosenberg ’s, invited her to experience wine-making at a little store in Georgia just for fun. After a great time, Rosenberg and DeRossett had an epiphany – there was potential for more enjoyment, and better quality with wine-making.

Soon, she and DeRossett set out on a mission to learn everything about winemaking, investing and researching deeply into what makes a good wine, including development of new state-of-the-art wine-making experience equipment that’s safe and simple for consumers. Last year, they opened their first Let’s Make Wine attached to Montezuma Vineyards and Restaurants in Pagosa Springs , Colorado . The concept was an immediate hit.

“We procured high-quality grape juice concentrates from all over the world,” Rosenberg said. “As with any wine, the result is only as good as the grapes and juice varietals that go into it, and we have searched out the best varietals from around the world. We’re setting the standard, and we’re setting it quite high.”

Let’s Make Wine shops feature a spacious, comfortable, upscale atmosphere with exquisite wine-related gift products available for sale. The franchise model for Let’s Make Wine provides for stores ranging from 1,200 to 2,500 square feet. The recommended locations are stand-alone stores in high traffic, higher end malls.

Franchising to Perfection
Like their state-of-the art process that allows wine to age to perfection in about 30 days, Let’s Make Wine’s top-notch franchise opportunity offers proprietary winemaking equipment and process, expert guidance in store build out, operations and marketing, a proprietary POS system for inventory ordering and management, store accounting, corporate reporting and customer data management.

In addition, new franchisees and their managers attend “ Wine Orientation University ” for 10 days of initial training at the 1810 Country Inn and Winery in Thomson , Georgia , before opening their shop and receive on-site training and assistance when they open. Startup costs include a $55,000 franchise fee, a capital investment ranging from $246,000-$425,500 and $125,000 in liquid capital.

Because each state and many local governments have their own alcohol related laws, franchisees are responsible for identifying and complying with the laws and regulations that apply to operating a Let’s Make Wine business.