I entered the Newport Seafood and Wine Festival in Newport, Oregon, to the sound of Johnny Cash growling about a "ring of fire" and a bouncer named Summer praising me for having the good sense to wear black. "I've seen people at the end of the night with their white shirts entirely stained purple from wine splashes," she revealed. She then motioned me to keep moving inside the tent in the same eerie way the Grim Reaper gestures in my nightmares.
Whether speaking to stumblers or sophisticates, family-owned wine producers can sell 100 cases or more of wine here. That is if they can keep up the pace of pouring as fast as they can pop open a bottle and edit their sales pitch down to a few words.
"Big reds" and "sweet whites" were the CliffsNotes descriptions used for Passive Aggressive wines ($16 to $18) poured by festival first-timers Folin Cellars in Gold Hill.
Wine producers at the Newport Seafood and Wine Festival included:
- Soloro Vineyard in Grants Pass
- Folin Cellars in Gold Hill
- Ledger David Cellars in Talent
- Valley View Winery in Jacksonville
- Misty Oaks Vineyard in Oakland
- Crater Lake Cellars in Shady Cove
- Delfino Vineyards in Roseburg
Read the complete Eno Outings wine column in the Medford Mail Tribune: http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=LIFE0702
For more information to the February 2014 Newport Seafood and Wine Festival: www.seafoodandwine.com or call 800-262-7844.
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