Campbell company makes wine barrel dreams come true

Mercury News

On several hundred acres in Hollister, old wine barrels sit in the sun, the wood aging as the vintages they once contained did.

“People love the old, rustic look,” says Brian Preetz, founder of Barrel Dreams, whose headquarters are in Campbell.

The Hollister ranch is used to store the barrels Preetz’s company rents to use as cocktail tables at corporate events, weddings and the like.

“Wine barrel events add a lot of unique character,” he says.

They can also have entertainment value. At a Google corporate team building event, employees took off their shoes, got on barrels and stomped grapes.

“There were thousands of people at that event,” Preetz says. “People said that we were entertaining, fun and that we made the party.”

“We take old wine barrels and make benches, chairs, dog beds, bistro tables and bar stools,” Preetz says. “We make over 50 items out of these barrels.”

Preetz purchases thousands of barrels at a time from vineyards that are rotating them out of service. He says barrels have a useful life of about four years when it comes to storing and aging wine.

For more information, visit http://www.barreldreams.com.