Wine festival explained

Annual wine festivals celebrate viticulture and usually occur after the harvest of the grapes which, in the northern hemisphere, generally falls at the end of September and runs until well into October or later. They are common in most wine regions around the world and are to be considered in the tradition of other harvest festivals.

The Egyptian god Osiris was dedicated to wine, but the oldest historically documented wine festivals can be traced back to the Greek celebrations for their wine god Dionysos. The typical ingredients of a wine festival include wine drinking, grape pressing, regional foods, music and, in many areas, religious ritual.

In culture

The grape, and the extraction of its juice to produce wine, is more than a flavorsome food or drink. Both grapes and wine have immense cultural significance in many cultures, and often religious significance too.

Competitions

• Oregon Wine Competition
• Concours Mondial de Bruxelles
• International Wine and Spirit Competition
• Varsity blind wine tasting match

Festivals

Australian festivals

• Caxton Street Seafood and Wine Festival
• Grampians Grape Escape
• Kings Cross Food and Wine Festival
• Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

Brazilian festivals

• Festa do Vinho (Santa Catarina)
• Festa do Vinho de Andradas

Canadian festivals

• Cowichan Wine and Culinary Festival, British Columbia
• Niagara Wine Festival, St. Catharines, Ontario

German festivals

• Baden
  • Wine festival calendar
• Hessische Bergstraße
  • Winzerfest, Groß-Umstadt
• Mosel
  • Moselfest, Winningen
  • Weinfest der Mittelmosel, Bernkastel-Kues
• Palatinate
  • Burg- und Weinfest, Wachenheim
  • Deidesheimer Weinkerwe, Deidesheim
  • Deutsches Weinlesefest, Neustadt
  • Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt, Bad Dürkheim
  • Eselshautfest, Mußbach
  • Fest des Federweißen, Landau
  • Kändelgassenfest, Großkarlbach
  • Mandelblütenfest, Gimmeldingen
  • Stadtmauerfest, Freinsheim
• Rheingau
  • Rheingauer Weinwoche, Wiesbaden
• Rheinhessen
  • Weinmarkt Mainz, Mainz
  • Backfischfest, Worms
• Saxony
  • Herbst- und Weinfest, Radebeul
• Württemberg
  • Fellbacher Herbst, Fellbach
  • Weindorf, Stuttgart

French festivals

• Beaujolais Nouveau
• Bordeaux Wine Festival, Bordeaux, France

la paulee de mersault, Burgundy, France

Hungarian festivals

• Badacsony Wine Weeks, Badacsonytomaj
• Balatonboglár Grape Harvest Days, Balatonboglár
• Balatonfüred Wine Weeks, Balatonfüred
• BorZsongás, wine festival of Villány
• Budapest International Wine Festival, Budapest - the largest Hungarian wine festival (about 50,000 people per festival) ^[1]
• Budavári Borfesztivál, Budapest
• Eger Grape Harvest Festival, Eger
• Eger Star Wine Festival (Egri Csillag Borfesztivál), Eger
• Etyek Cellar Festival, Etyek
• Gourmet Festival, Budapest
• Grape Harvest Festival of Tokaj-Hegyalja, Tokaj
• Győr Wine Days, Győr
• Pannonhalma Wine Region Cellar Festival, Pannonhalma
• Rosé Riesling and Jazz Days, Veszprém
• Sopron Grape Harvest Days, Sopron
• Szekszárd Grape Harvest Festival, Szekszárd
• Tihany Grape Harvest Days, Tihany
• Tokaj Wine Festival, Tokaj
• Villány Grape Harvest Festival, Villány
• VinAgora, Budapest
• Wine Festival of Balaton's wines, Budapest

United States festivals

• Beaujolais Wine Festival, Dallas, Texas^[2]
• Boston Wine Festival, Massachusetts
• Cleveland Wine festival, Cleveland, Ohio^[3]
• Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival, Miami Beach, Florida
• French Quarter Wine Festival, New Orleans, Louisiana^[4]
• Hilton Head Island Wine and Food Festival, one of the oldest in the US
• Keystone Wine and Jazz Festival, Keystone, Colorado
• Maryland Wine Festival, Maryland
• Naples Grape Festival, Naples, New York
  • North Carolina Wine Festival Paso Robles Wine Festival, California
• San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, California
• Simply Wine Festival, California
• Oregon Wine Experience, Oregon
• Tallahassee Wine and Food Festival, Florida
• Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival, California
• Vendemmia Festival Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania^[5]
• Vendemmia Festival Societa' DaVinci, Wilmington, Delaware^[6]

Argentinian festivals

• Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia, Mendoza City, Argentina
• Médanos, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Other festivals

• Feria Nacional de San Marcos, Aguascalientes, Mexico
• Festival of Wine, United Kingdom
• Haro Wine Festival, Haro, Spain
• Port Wine Fest, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal
• Qormi Wine Festival, Malta
• Vendemmia Festival Sicily, Sicily, Italy^[7]
• Vineyard Harvest of Surco, Santiago de Surco, Peru
• Wine Festival of Cyprus, Limassol, Republic of Cyprus
• Zielona Góra Wine Fest, Poland

See also

• Bacchanalia
• History of French wine
• Italian wine

External links

• List of Balkan wine festivals

Notes and References

1. Web site: Budapest Borfesztivál .
2. http://www.faccdallas.com/ Dallas Texas Annual Beaujolais Wine Festival
3. Web site: Welcome to the Cleveland Wine Festival . www.clevelandwinefestival.com . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060618025956/http://www.clevelandwinefestival.com/ . 2006-06-18.
4. http://www.frenchquarterwinefestival.com/our-story.html New Orleans Louisiana, French Quarter Wine Festival
5. Web site: Vendemmia Festival, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA . 2009-10-03 . 2009-10-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20091004094558/http://www.vendemmiafoundation.org/festival/index.html . dead .
6. http://www.societadavinci.com/html/vendemmia.htm Vendemmia Festival Societa' DaVinci of Wilmington, Delaware, USA
7. http://www.lovesicily.com/blog/vendemmia-2009-sicily Vendemmia Festival, Sicily, Italy