Working on your travel plans for this summer? You may want to consider sneaking one of these summer wine festivals into your schedule. Organize your whole trip around the festival, or just tell your travel companions you have a quick and boozy pit-stop request. Either way, you don’t want to go through the entire summer without enjoying one great wine festival.
Great Tastes of Pennsylvania: June 21 & 22, 2014
If you’ve got the itch to hit up a summer wine festival like, now, the 24th annual Great Tastes of Pennsylvania is just what you’re looking for. The festival kicks off next weekend, and its first day on June 21 is also the first official day of summer. Can you think of a better way to celebrate?
The Great Tastes of Pennsylvania takes place at Split Rock Resort & Golf Club in Lake Harmony, PA. This outdoor festival has musical entertainment, educational seminars, tons of food and craft vendors, and of course, wine from many of Pennsylvania’s finest wineries. The whole resort is beautiful, so call to make reservations and plan to make a whole weekend out of it.
California Wine Festival: July 17, 18 & 19
Santa Barbara is one of the most beautiful places to visit in California, and thankfully, it is the site of the California Wine Festival this July. Instead of just being an all-day festival held under a big tent, it is spread out over three days in the form of different events you can buy individual tickets for. The means you can get as involved as you want to and don’t have to commit to anything that doesn’t interest you.
The first night from 6:30-9 is the Old Spanish Nights Wine Tasting and it’s filled with Spanish music, flamenco dancing, tapas, California wines and some great Spanish imports. The next night there are two different seminars to choose from, followed by a sunset rare and reserve wine tasting. It’s a champagne reception under the stars at Chase Palm Park Plaza and extremely limited reserve level wines are matched with gourmet apps, cheeses, and chocolates. The last day is a beachside wine festival from 1-4 (12-4 if you buy early admission tickets!) and it’s just wine, food, sand, sun, and pure happiness.
Shoreline Wine Festival: August 16 & 17
If you love New England in the summer, take a break from the beach and visit the Shoreline Wine Festival in Guildford, Connecticut. It’s hosted and sponsored by Bishop’s Orchards Winery, who also provides tours of their winery during the festival.
This two-day festival lets you taste wines from a variety of local wineries, sit in on many different wine seminars, enjoy live music and entertainment, and visit local vendors and artisans. We think one of the coolest things about this wine festival is that you can buy two different kinds of tickets: an adult wine festival ticket, or a designated driver ticket for a fraction of the price. It’s great they encourage designated drivers and don’t make them pay full price if they won’t be partaking in the vino.
Have any wine festivals that you love to hit up? Tell us about them below.