For most of us the closest we get to wine-making is the finished product in the bottle. Now former Zim tobacco farmer, Peter Stuart has developed a concept that allows people to share in and participate in the process of making their very own barrel of wine.

The business is known as Carteirra and uses its website – and a personalised dashboard – as a base. “You go on to the site, or engage with us directly,” Stuart says. “You select a particular cultivar or vineyard, you are allocated a winemaker, and you select a barrel which then becomes uniquely yours.”

Participation starts from the moment the vines bud in spring, through harvest and the pressing of the grapes, to cellaring. Each milestone is meticulously documented on the client’s personal website.

Once in the barrel clients are invited to bi-annual tastings. In South Africa it would be at Stuart’s farm, Maremmana just outside Hermanus where the wine is cellared. Once the wine is ready for bottling clients can submit their own labels. The result is a wine that they have helped nurture every step of the way and in which is now uniquely theirs.