Before I was a beer girl, I was a wine girl. While most people get their first tastes of wine via the gateway Beringer White Zinfandel, I was lucky enough to meet my first wines at Oliver Winery in Bloomington, Indiana. Over the years my tastes (and regions) have expanded, but I’ve always enjoyed Indiana wines. I’ve admired the gorgeous artwork on an Oliver label (as well as the deliciousness inside). Summer isn’t summer for me without their classic sangria. For several years we used Whyte Horse Winery to pour at our Montessori School’s annual Wine Tasting & Silent Auction, and I was always elated to see the pleasant surprise on people’s faces when they tasted their wines for the first time and realized the goodness in our own backyard.
On Saturday, June 2nd you have the chance to get to know these wonderful wineries and more at the 13th annual Vintage Indiana, a festival of food, wine and fun. Twenty-six of Indiana’s 63 wineries will be pouring over 200 samples of local wine. Other highlights of Vintage Indiana, held at Military Park in Indianapolis, include:
Food
You can’t fully enjoy great wine without food (not in my world, anyway). Throughout the day the Food & Wine Pavilion will host various lineups where they cook and pour while you eat and enjoy – an arrangement I’m always game for. I’m especially interested in “Beat the Dinnertime Clock,” with suggestions on how to get a meal on the table before the kids melt down, along with perfect wine pairings so I don’t melt down. There will also be lots of local food vendors, including my unofficial winner of The Best Fish Taco in Indiana: Taco Lassi.
Music
A great lineup, including one of my American Idol favorites, Casey James.
KidZone
Just because it’s a wine festival doesn’t mean you have to leave the kids at home. The festival features a special area for kids sponsored by Indy’s Child, with lots of interactive fun. Best of all, kids 5 and under are free and kids 6 and older are only $5.
Adult tickets are $22 in advance, or $25 at the gate. This ticket allows you to sample all wines at the event, as well as purchase wine by the glass or bottle. Have a designated driver in your group? Their tickets are only $10 and allows them unlimited soft drinks as well as the ability to purchase wine by the bottle to take home. Advance tickets are available online at Vintage Indiana, at Marsh, or at participating vendors.
OR … how about 2 free tickets? Thanks to the generosity of Indiana’s Family of Farmers, I have 2 adult tickets to give away to one lucky winner. Here’s how to enter:
- Leave a comment telling me the one Indiana wine you’d recommend to a friend (required).
- For an additional entry, tweet or post on Facebook about this giveaway, leaving a comment saying that you did so.
The contest will run through 11:59 p.m. ET Friday, May 25th. Winner will be notified via email and have 24 hours to respond before another winner is chosen. Winner will receive 2 adult tickets to Vintage Indiana, valued at $44. Additional contests are being held on the following blogs if you’d like to increase your chances of winning:
Thanks and good luck!
Disclosure: As an Indiana Family of Farmer’s Ambassador, I was compensated for this giveaway. All opinions are my own.
Sweets wines, like Easley Reggae Red are top shelf
If you love sweet red wine, trying the Oliver Blackberry is a must!
Anything from Easley – especially their Sparkling Pink Paradise!
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It is hard to pick just one but my favorites are Oliver (love the new Hard Ciders)
BONUS choice: Huber Wines
Oliver Winery’s Gewurtztraminer is awesome. I miss Bloomington. Also, retweeted your announcement. If I win, tix gonna go to my sis-in-law and her husband so they can get a bit of time off from their 6 month old and sample some wines.
Satek Winery has a delicious Mango Mania that is nice on a hot summer day! Yum!
Posted to Facebook too! Thanks for the opportunity to win these tickets!
We like a lot of wines from Winzerwald in southern Indiana. My favorite is the Schweizer Spice. They call it “liquid pumpkin pie” and it’s delicious. They sold out of it at the last wine fair I went to before I could get any!
I love Oliver Winery’s Soft Red wine. I love Oliver Winery in general!!
Oliver Winery Blackberry has been one of my favorite since I went to school in Bloomington! I absolutely love it paired with cheesecake for dessert!!
I would recommend Owen Valley Winery. Not very well known, my coworker Jo Anna Holden Leaderbrand and her husband started the winery a few years ago and it’s been growing every since. I had samples at an event I put on and was thoroughly impressed! I hope that they continue to grow and get picked up by a major distributor soon. Cheers for Indiana wines!
My favorite Indiana wine is the one I don’t have to pay for! 😀 They’re all good! I never liked wine until I tasted Indiana wines. I always buy local! 😀
I recommend (and frequently, I might add) the Rettig Hill Winery Grand Rouge. Not only is it delicious, it is also unusual. It’s blended in part from grapes native to the New World (aka Norton grapes), rather than using only transplanted Old World vines. They give the wine a marvelous depth and a brilliant deep color that exceeds the deep red of a petite syrah.