Winey Event Alert: It’s Time for The 2013 Cleveland Wine Festival!

I’m going to ask those of you who don’t live near Cleveland to indulge me here. Because for those of us who abide in or near to northeast Ohio, we are coming up on one of my favorite weekends of the summer: The Cleveland Wine Fest! This Fest is turning 8 years old this year and is being held at Voinovich Park in downtown Cleveland. The park is smack dab next to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Great Lakes Science Museum and runs along North Coast Harbor. So you’ve got wine, rock music and a harbor view. Sounds like a winner to me!


Cleveland Wine Festival with the city lights in the background

I love these kind of festivals, because you get to sample so many new wines that if you were to take them one bottle at a time, would take months, if not years. Even at my pace. And the list of wines for sipping this year is impressive, if not daunting!

I am looking forward to meeting some new wines and wineries and tasting some offerings from some of my favorite wineries. So, you will definitely see me at the Oliver Winery table. (Winey Tasting Notes: Oliver Moscato From Indiana? Yup!) They are one of the groundbreaking wineries in the great state of Indiana. I loved their Moscato, and they have some yummy sounding wines up for tasting (Honey Peach and Soft Red? yum!). I also will be at The Wine Group’s table. These are the folks that bring us Cupcake wines and I am a HUGE fan of Cupcake’s Red Velvet (Winey Tasting Notes: Pass Me The Red Velvet Cupcake Please!!) and I am really looking forward to trying some Save Me San Francisco Hella Fine Merlot, courtesy of the band Train. Not just because I love that line in the song and the band…but I ask you, who could pass up a hella fine merlot? I will be stopping by the Trinchero Family Estates table as well, simply because these are the people that bring us one of my favorite naughty wine names ever: Menage A Trois Red (Winey Tasting Notes: The Naughty Wine Names Series: Menage a Trois Red.) Their Bandit and Seaglass lines are definitely on my radar. And of course, the Winey Hubby and I will visit the Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, because way back when, Chateau St. Michelle was the very first winery we visited in Washington State.

Let’s not forget that June is Ohio Wine Month, so the folks at Debonne Vineyards will be seeing us at their booth. (Blueberry noir? Yes please!) As will the Ferrante Winery gang and their Raspberry Blanc. And I will never be one to pass up a chance at Meier’s Wine Cellars Sinful Sangria (Meier’s is in Cincinnati, but we’ll let them in just because we are so nice up here in Cleveland.) Other Ohio wineries include Raven’s Glen, Laurello Vineyards and Maize Valley.

And for those of you who (gasp!) prefer your wine to be beer, there will also be quite a bit of that brew on hand or in mug, as the case may be. Stella Artois will be presenting a “Best of Belgium Tour” and Goose Island beer will be there with some new festival brews. There, I gave the other side its due time. Now let’s go back to wine.

There will of course, be food and entertainment to round out the festival. My only question to all you Winey Cleveland Readers is: when will you be going? The Festival runs Friday from 4:00-10:00 p.m. and Saturday from 2:00-8:00 p.m. For all the Winey details, check out the Wine Festival website , their Facebook page or follow them on Twitter.

Hope to see you there!

Cheers!