We had planned the night before to go downtown and check out the Cleveland Wine Festival. The tickets were $29 in advance/$35 at the door and you got "10 wine sample tickets"(i'll explain why this is in quotes later), 2 tickets for a full glass of beer, and a "souvenir wine glass"(ie. a plastic stemless cup). Adam and I had gone to a wine festival in the Berkshires, it was my prize for winning the Tanglewood photo contest in 2011. At that festival they gave us actual glasses imprinted with the wine fest logo, which was totally awesome. I was kind of bummed that the Cleveland one didn't do something similar, considering you pay quite a hefty entrance fee.
Anyway, we started off at the front where there were free mini pulled pork sliders and chicken legs courtesy of Garland Jack's BBQ sauce. I didn't get a pic of the food, but I did get a pic of the wet wipes you pulled from a pig's butt. They were also giving away free t-shirts if you challenged your friend to a sumo match wearing a pig or a cow costume on a giant grill. I also noticed some inflatable chicken legs, which I'm guessing you'd use if you were trying to go all American Gladiator on your friend instead.
We decided to save our beer tickets for after the wine tasting, so we headed into the fenced off wine tasting area next. We didn't really have any game plan other than trying to find a Spanish wine vendor. My dad had just visited the country and wanted to see what was being offered at the fest. We basically walked around and just tried things that sounded good. I mainly stuck with the white wines, occasionally throwing in a mead (mango flavored) or a hard cider (cherry flavored). One vendor I visited was from the Finger Lakes and had a brambleberry wine. To be honest, I was intrigued when he handed me a dark chocolate hershey kiss and told me to eat the kiss then drink the wine for a "delicious chocolate raspberry experience". He was right, it was delicious. We didn't even end up using all our tickets, because most vendors didn't even bother collecting them. I'm guessing they were meant to be a way to keep people from getting totally plastered.
There were a few demonstrations at the fest, including one by Barefoot winery on how to make sangria.
By 5:30 PM it was getting overcast, wicked hot out, and super busy and we were ready to head out (the fest finished at 7:30 PM). We got in line at the Stella Artois booth to get our free glass of either Stella, Hoegaarden, Leffe beer or Stella hard cider. I got a Stella beer, dad got a Leffe and we just sat and enjoyed the evening for a while. I forgot to mention, we bought Adam a $10 designated driver ticket, which gave him 2 free non-alcoholic drinks. He's not a big drinker and this worked out well for us, we had a DD to drive us home.
On our way out, dad took a photo of Adam and I in front of Lake Erie.
We ended the evening with dinner at the B Spot and a Bruins loss (womp womp). On Sunday we visited Chagrin Falls, OH, so stay tuned for part 2!
Anyway, we started off at the front where there were free mini pulled pork sliders and chicken legs courtesy of Garland Jack's BBQ sauce. I didn't get a pic of the food, but I did get a pic of the wet wipes you pulled from a pig's butt. They were also giving away free t-shirts if you challenged your friend to a sumo match wearing a pig or a cow costume on a giant grill. I also noticed some inflatable chicken legs, which I'm guessing you'd use if you were trying to go all American Gladiator on your friend instead.
We decided to save our beer tickets for after the wine tasting, so we headed into the fenced off wine tasting area next. We didn't really have any game plan other than trying to find a Spanish wine vendor. My dad had just visited the country and wanted to see what was being offered at the fest. We basically walked around and just tried things that sounded good. I mainly stuck with the white wines, occasionally throwing in a mead (mango flavored) or a hard cider (cherry flavored). One vendor I visited was from the Finger Lakes and had a brambleberry wine. To be honest, I was intrigued when he handed me a dark chocolate hershey kiss and told me to eat the kiss then drink the wine for a "delicious chocolate raspberry experience". He was right, it was delicious. We didn't even end up using all our tickets, because most vendors didn't even bother collecting them. I'm guessing they were meant to be a way to keep people from getting totally plastered.
There were a few demonstrations at the fest, including one by Barefoot winery on how to make sangria.
By 5:30 PM it was getting overcast, wicked hot out, and super busy and we were ready to head out (the fest finished at 7:30 PM). We got in line at the Stella Artois booth to get our free glass of either Stella, Hoegaarden, Leffe beer or Stella hard cider. I got a Stella beer, dad got a Leffe and we just sat and enjoyed the evening for a while. I forgot to mention, we bought Adam a $10 designated driver ticket, which gave him 2 free non-alcoholic drinks. He's not a big drinker and this worked out well for us, we had a DD to drive us home.
On our way out, dad took a photo of Adam and I in front of Lake Erie.
We ended the evening with dinner at the B Spot and a Bruins loss (womp womp). On Sunday we visited Chagrin Falls, OH, so stay tuned for part 2!
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