Columbus Wine Festival - cheers on a great event

Visitors sample wines. (Photo: Andrew Kennett)

The first-ever Columbus Wine Festival proved to be a smashing success, bringing together lovers of wine, food, great entertainment, and the Franklin Park Conservatory for a grand time in Franklin Park.  With warm, sunny weather and beautiful surroundings, visitors to the Festival had an ideal setting to enjoy the event, which turned out to be all that it promised to be and more. 

As hundreds of oenophiles, both expert and beginner, descended on the Wine Festival, dozens of vendors stepped forward with information and samples to inform and entice.  With more than 150 wines from across the US and the world available to sample, visitors could easily find styles to suit any palate.  In addition, vendors of fine foods from restaurants, like Trattoria Roma and Latitude 41, to gourmet ingredients, like Wildtree, producers of grapeseed oils, were on hand to tempt visitors with their products.  With this feast of food and drink, visitors' taste buds were kept very busy indeed.

Erin Bode sings with her band.  (Photo: Andrew Kennett)

At the same time, the festival-goers were kept very well entertained.  The Barefoot Wine Sangria Challenge, in which contestants' recipes were judged by a celebrity panel dominated by members of the Mix 107 crew, was a crowd favorite.  This was, no doubt, aided by the generous pouring of samples of several Barefoot Wine varieties, including their new Pinot Noir, for the audience members.  Complete recipes for all the entries are promised at the company's website.  Shortly after this competition, jazz vocalist Erin Bode took the stage and entertained festival-goers.  Her clear, melodic voice and wide range of songs provided the perfect atmosphere for exploring the wines on offer, mixing and mingling with fellow enthusiasts, or sitting back and enjoying a few songs.

Chef Vandaele demonstrates a pour. (Photo: Andrew Kennett)

Located on the patio garden just outside the Conservatory's Palm House, the Belgian Beer Cafe was a clear winner in terms of places to be during the Wine Festival.  A ticket good for a free sample of either Stella Artois, Leffe, or Hoegaarden was an unexpected, but quite welcome, addition to the ten coupons for wine samples that came with each admission to the Festival.  In addition to these fine beers, the Cafe featured multiple engagements of renowned chef and restaurant owner Bart Vandaele.  Vandaele not only demonstrated proper glassware and the perfect pouring technique for each of these three beers, but discussed each beer, pairing each with foods, and even how to cook with each type of beer.  His presentations were as humorous as they were informative, and they included sampling of each of the three beers, delicious food-pairings, and a free gift for each audience member.