By Barbara Arnstein
The America’s Grape Country Wine Festival is a two-and-a-half-day festival at the Chautauqua County Fairgrounds in Dunkirk showcasing the best in New York wines, breweries, distilleries, and agricultural producers from all around New York State. Guests are invited to sip, savor, and enjoy live music all weekend long, along with food demonstrations, chats with winemakers, a Classic Car Show, unique whiskey, vodka, gin, bourbon selections, and more. The food trucks will offer a variety of foods from several of Western New York’s favorites, including buffalo wings and beef to Mediterranean cuisine. There will also be gourmet popcorn, craft jerky, cheese spreads, wine-infused cupcakes, goat’s milk fudge, cookies and more delicious treats.
The food and wine demonstrations are included with festival admission and are throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday. Attendees will learn three amazing recipes: crepes, stuffed banana peppers, and “The Bear” Chicago Beef Sandwich. The wine topics will include food pairings, classic varieties, New York State wines and sparkling wines. Chef Krista Van Wagner, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, and has thirty years of experience as a restaurant consultant and a cooking demonstrator, will present the food demonstrations, and wine expert Donna Schlosser-Long, will talk about wines, drawing on her twenty years of experience in the wine industry.
The Classic Car Show runs on Saturday from 12-5pm with drivers getting free admission. The awards that will be presented by Shults Resale of Dunkirk include Best of Show, Best Muscle Car, Best Hot Rod, Best Restored Car, Best Custom Car and Best Interior. The rain date is Sunday.
The festival begins on Friday, August 5th, with a party featuring the band Pirate Dreams, which will play from 6-10pm. On the last day of the festival, Sunday, August 7th will feature live music by Last Call 12-5pm.
A One-Day or Two-Day Taster Ticket gives you admittance to the festival grounds, parking, a commemorative wine glass, a cloth wine tote, and a Taster’s Guide Booklet. Designated Driver tickets are also available. You can save money when buying a four-pack, because if you buy three, you get the fourth one free.
The Merritt Estate Winery has been in the same family since the late 19th century, and presently produces over 27 award-winning wines, including Red, White, Specialty and a Wine Slush Mix. It has won awards all over the country, from the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition to the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition in California.
Some of the wineries represented at the fair include: Savage Farm Winery, specializing in sweet wines, including one of Western New York’s favorite flavors, Loganberry, and also sells beer, ciders and slushies; Sprague Vineyards, whose family has been growing grapes along the Lake Erie waterfront, south of Buffalo, for over a century; the Thousand Islands winery that produces twenty-three varieties of wine in five categories; Ten Thousand Vines, a micro-winery in Hamburg, NY has fifty unique varieties, and sells wine-making kits and supplies; Freedom Gypsies Farm Winery LLC, includes Dessert Wines, including Raspberry Mocha wine, and Apricot, Blueberry, Cherry, Peach and Raspberry Merlot.
One of the food items available at the festival is the dessert-in-a-jar treat called the Sweet Jar, with the categories of “Sweet”, “Sweeter” and “Sweetest”. Each jar contains several yummy items with a single, popular flavor theme, including Strawberry Shortcake, Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch, Cookies & Cream, S’mores and Mixed Berry Cheesecake. Just a few of the many food vendors who will be represented there include Killa Kookies & Kream, who specialize in making expertly customized items and the Abbas Acres Farm, which offers the uniquely smooth goat’s milk fudge, as well as numerous others.
The America’s Grape Country Wine Festival begins on August 5th at 6pm and ends on August 7th at 5pm. The Chautauqua County Fairgrounds are located at 1089 Central Avenue, in Dunkirk, NY. On August 6th, the Festival Hours are from 11am to 6pm and the After-Hours Party is from 6-10pm. On August 7th, the Festival hours are from 12-5pm. You can buy tickets by going online to agcwinefestival.com or by calling 1-800-965-4834.