With seven more wineries to sample from this year, wine connoisseurs strolled into Pemberton Park on Saturday afternoon for the annual Autumn Wine Festival.
Entering its ninth year, the festival followed past traditions by having food, wine and entertainment at the historic park along the river, but also kept moving forward by adding new tastes. Attending the festival for the first time was Slack Wines and Vineyards from Ridge, Md., featuring four wines, ranging from a dessert to a dry, red.
“We wanted to see how an Eastern Shore festival compares to our area’s wine festival,” said Maggie O’Brien, owner, as to why she and staff drove three hours to attend the two-day event. “This is as far away as we have been from our core market.”
O’Brien hopes to test the taste buds of Eastern Shore wine drinkers to see if her company can benefit from attending yearly. She was also offering those who liked the wine a chance to participate in direct shipping as part of the company’s wine club.
The direct shipping program, which began state-wide on July 1, allows Maryland residents to receive wine directly to their front door. It also allows wineries, such as Slack, to expand the number of customers who can drink their wine year-round. Local winery Bordeleau was sampling 13 of their wines at the festival as well as taking names and contact information from anyone who may want to join their wine club.
Cheryl and Dave Holdefer, first sampled Bordeleau wines after their daughter began attending Salisbury University. The couple, from Columbia, Md., attends wine festivals throughout the country and was waiting for the perfect day to come to the Autumn Wine Festival.
“I was very impressed,” says Cheryl Holdefer about the first time the couple went to Bordeleau. The couple enjoys “oakey wines” and say’s they aren’t easy to find, but that Bordeleau has them.
While the Holdefers knew they were going to buy a case of Bordeleau wine, Julianna Brush, who was sampling vino with her Mother and Aunt, says they came to support the local focus of the festival, which only features Maryland wineries.
“It’s wonderful to see this type of event,” said Brush. “I love supporting anything local and there are really good quality wines.”In addition to the new wineries, this year the tourism officials who put on the festival came up with a unique blend of food and wine. Sandy Fulton, tourism manager, says her staff wanted to do something new and ended up adding an oyster bar as well as an oyster shooter.
“It’s a shot of wine in a wine glass, then we add the Chincoteague oysters and special hot sauce from Texas,” said Fulton. For those less adventurous the festival features more traditional foods available.