Star City Fame: Record-Breaking Roanoke Wine Fest 2009 Best Ever!!!

OMG!! Nothing to do in Roanoke??? I hope I never hear anyone say that! Especially from spring to late fall, there are so many things going on that a person needs to plan ahead to hit several events in one day!

It looks like this year's Roanoke Valley Wine Festival at Elmwood Park had the best attendance, according to an announcement made while I was floating around. They actually ran out of wine glasses two hours before the end of the event! I had a blast. I know everyone there did, too. It was hot as all hell, but the weather cooperated (again!) and so we avoided the T-Storms in our forcast today.

What I really love about our Downtown events is that our Arts organizations and our local specialty vendors get together and pull off the most fabulous entertainment, practically on a non-stop basis. (The Wine Festival is a Center in the Square affair, sponsored this year by SunTrust, Gentry Locke, WSLS, Q99, and Roanoke's Premier Arts and Leisure Guide, City Magazine.) While most outdoor events are family-oriented, Wine Fest volunteers verified patrons' ID for age in order to issue a wrist band allowing one to taste or purchase wine.

Once inside the park, people gathered around numerous tents of local and area wineries to sample a variety of Virginia brands. (Eleven wineries participated this year.) The wait at each tent took about five minutes, but it was worth it. Typically, a few people get to the table and begin having their glasses splashed with a short sip of a winery's repertoire. You may be trying out five or six kinds of a vineyard's crafted "adult grape product," while your host describes the wine they are serving you. Naturally, you may buy a full glass, or bottles, of their wine once a particular wine impresses your taste buds. I bought a bottle of white from Hickory Hill Vineyards of Smith Mountain Lake, VA - a dry unoaked Chardonnay. (See top photo.)

Wine Seminars were presented by Gordon Kendell and John Blackburn. Musical entertainment for the day came from two bands, Crawford, Reed, Burton & Ball, and headliners, The Encore Band. The Wine Festival started at 11am and hopefully our presenting wineries brought enough bottles to last until 5pm.

Local, local, local!!!
We had a good representation of our area's fine specialty and gourmet artisans at this year's Wine Festival. A few were out-of-towners, but most of them are from right here and they all generously support our local Arts and events organizations. I know many of them personally. They give of their revenue as well as their time to make a lot of the things that we Roanokers and visitors enjoy here a reality.

A few Local Retailers represented at the Wine Festival today (that you should know about):

One of my favorite shops is Baylees's Best Chocolates, owned and operated by Bayla Sussman, who has a shop at West Village in SW County. Her homemade recipes are to die for! If you love dark chocolate, welcome to your new addiction... Baylee's Best is always fresh daily. Don't think about it, just order everything behind the counter. THAT'S how good it is!

Dogtown Pizza, run by Rachel Armistead, Jon Roberts and Scott Smith, are also relatively new - and have created a whole new Pizza Experience: A "Traveling Wood Fired Oven." The oven looks like an igloo - for real!! Dogtown's website has a line-up of all the events they're at. They call themselves "the party.. on wheels." Well, now you have something really unique to look at while you watch your pizza being made. If that impresses you, here's the best thing about them: the ingredients are organic and LOCAL!!

I also ran into a T-shirt vendor's tent displaying something really different: A ROA-NOKE T-shirt that plays on the Coca-Cola logo... Well, Roanoke is definitely the "Real Thing!" Star City Clothing Company makes these Tees. (Edit: Yes, they have a website! Click on their name to go there!) I especially love their tag line, which says: "Show Off your Roanoke Pride! Wear it on your sleeve, or at least on one of our T's!" Look for them in your journey around town and at events.

So please patronize Local Business, whether you go Downtown or to Salem or to the perimeters of Roanoke County and its neighboring towns. Shop locally in these economic times, and also all the time... We live, work, and do business in Roanoke to keep it strong. Our shopkeepers and service providers live here too.

Okay, my friends. Here are some more pictures I took today at the Wine Festival. If you were there, you just might find yourselves in one of them. If you weren't - GET OUTSIDE AND GO TO A DOWNTOWN EVENT THIS WEEK!!!

The Wineries and Vineyards: