Here at the Wine Road we know a thing or two about wine festivals, but this month we will be traveling to the 36thAnnual GrapeFest, the largest wine festival of the Southwest, to see how wine is celebrated Texas style in Grapevine, Texas, September 15-18. 

The celebration of wine extends beyond Texas, as each year GrapeFest highlights wines from an international wine region and a domestic wine region—and this year Sonoma County wines and Italian wines from Sicily will be featured.

Wine Road podcast co-hosts Beth Costa and Marcy Gordon will attend the festival to represent Sonoma County and perform various duties associated with the festival including media appearances, and greeting attendees in the Liberty Plaza Wine Experience where Sonoma County wines will be featured. Beth and Marcy will do media appearances to promote the festival, speak about Sonoma wine, attend the Gaylord Texan VIP Tasting on Friday September 16th at 1pm and be roaming about the wine pavilion at Liberty Plaza. 

Love wine and music? GrapeFest has it covered with daily lineup of bands on stages throughout the venue with main stage headliners Jack Ingrahm and Taylor Dayne.

We look forward to meeting our Texas podcast listeners and answering your questions about visiting the Wine Road in Northern Sonoma County. Come say “Howdy!” to Beth and Marcy at the Liberty Park Plaza Wine Experience. 

Other GrapeFest wine experiences include the People’s Choice Wine Tasting Classic where consumers get to play wine judge, and bubble sipping on the Champagne Terrace. Or immerse yourself in one of several interactive activities like the GrapeStomp Competition where two-person teams swap turns at stomping approximately 18 pounds of grapes for two minutes, and officials will measure the extracted juice. Prizes for the champions are awarded hourly, and scores are kept for the entire weekend with a Grand Champion Stomp-Off on Sunday, in which the winners are awarded the coveted “Purple Foot,” a glass sculpture from Grapevine’s Vetro Glass Blowing Studio. Show off your aim and accuracy at the Champagne Cork Shoot-Off or learn a new skill in the Charcuterie Board Workshop.

Home to more than 400 wineries and 4,400 acres of vineyards producing nearly three million gallons of Texas wine each year, Texas is the fifth-largest wine-producing state in the United States. Grapevine is home to the Texas Wine & Grape Growers Association and Texas’ premier Urban Wine Trail, featuring a variety of award-winning winery tasting rooms.

Full details on the festival and all events available here: https://www.grapevinetexasusa.com/grapefest/

Posted by Marcy Gordon

Marcy Gordon is a freelance wine and travel writer. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including Wine Enthusiast, San Francisco Chronicle, Sonoma Magazine, The California Travel Guide, and Forbes Travel Guide. In 2017 she was awarded a fellowship to the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers. She is the co-host of the award winning Wine Road Podcast.