Team Building

History has shown that few activities bring people together – and form a basis of common understanding – more than food and wine. Cooking together and learning about wine is a fantastic way to get to know friends and colleagues. Fearrington House is pleased to offer a variety of innovative, fun and effective team building activities to suit your group’s interests and time constraints.

Your team will be inspired and motivated by these activities – all led by the talented culinary team, including Executive Chef Colin Bedford and Wine Director Max Kast, that has made The Fearrington House Restaurant one of the nation’s top restaurants.

Programs can be customized to suit your group’s specific needs and may be held in a variety of venues depending on your preferences and group size, such as the Barn, The Fearrington Granary, Old Laundry or Garden Terrace.

Ready Steady Cook
Duration: 2 hours
Group Size: 15–100 people
Package 1 – Cost: $125 per person
Includes: A Fearrington apron, prizes and a one course lunch at The Fearrington Granary
Package 2 – Cost: $150 per person
Includes: A Fearrington apron, prizes and a three course dinner at The Fearrington Granary
Package 3 – Cost: $180 per person
Includes: A Fearrington apron, prizes and a three course dinner at The Fearrington House

The Ready Steady Cook Challenge is ideal for groups of 15-100 and is our signature culinary team building activity. Each team is challenged to create a meal using limited resources and a secret ingredient within a specified time limit. The Fearrington House chefs judge the teams on creativity, use of ingredients, presentation, taste and, of course, team work! The Ready Steady Cook challenge takes approximately 3 hours and includes the activity, a Fearrington Beltie apron, prizes and a meal dependent on which package is chosen. Can be held in the Garden Terrace or the Barn.

Wine and Beer Classes
Duration: 60 minutes
Group Size: 10 minimum
Cost: $50 per person
Includes: Tasting 8 beers or wines

These wine and beer classes consist of a topic discussed by Max Kast followed by a tasting of 8 wines or 8 beers. Their abbreviated duration makes them the perfect way to end a day meeting at Fearrington. A selection of small hors d’oeuvres or cheeses will be available during the class. Select a topic from these choices (or for further inspiration, check out Max’s public wine and beer classes held at The Fearrington Granary):

-”Eccentric Whites: Touring the White Wines of Greece, Italy and Spain”
-”Making Sense of Wine Talk: How to Tell Your Fresh Acidity from your Ripe Tannins without Yawning”
-”Wine Everyday? Why Not? A look at Wine and its Cultural Influence”
-”Monks: They Made Great Beer”
-”What Makes a Lager a Lager”
-”American Micro-Breweries”

NEW: The Wine Pairing Challenge
Duration: 2 1/2 hours
Group Size: 10 minimum
Cost: $125 per person
Includes: Groups will enjoy eating the food and wine pairings

Here teams will be given a selection of wines to pair with a selection of foods. Since there are many different “perfect pairings” for many different foods, the competition must find the best of the best! When the teams are ready, they will arrange their pairings to Max who will rate the pairings on a scale of one to five, with one being the lowest and five being the highest. The team with the highest score wins, but all have the opportunity to enjoy the wine and food pairings.

NEW: The Wine Blending Challenge
Duration: 2 1/2 hours
Group Size: 10 minimum
Cost: $95 per person
Includes: Tips on how to make the perfect varietal

Here teams will be given five different wines from five different grape varietals. They will taste through each with Max Kast and go over the traditional blending techniques of different areas.  Then they will work as a team to make the best blend.  The wines will be either be a Bordeaux Style Blend (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec) or Rhone Style Blend (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Viognier). At the end, Max will judge each team’s wines and award the winner.