Wine festival
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
- 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
Canadian festivals
- Cowichan Wine and Culinary Festival, British Columbia
- Niagara Wine Festival, St. Catharines, Ontario
German festivals
- Baden
- Hessische Bergstraße
- Mosel
- Palatinate
- Rheingau
- Rheinhessen
French festivals
- Beaujolais Nouveau
- Bordeaux Wine Festival, Bordeaux, 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
- Art of Food & Wine Palm Desert
- 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
- 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]
Other festivals
- Feria Nacional de San Marcos, Aguascalientes, Mexico
- Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia, Mendoza City Argentina
- Haro Wine Festival, Haro, Spain
- Médanos, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 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