THE WORLD’S BEST WINE FESTIVALS
With a growing audience of wine lovers, wine festivals are big business these days. Almost every wine region hosts its own celebration. Often they are combined with food to create a grand gastronomic experience. Others, such as the annual Marciac jazz festival in France (see p65), combine wine with music.
Some are inspired by a single grape variety. Pinot Noir seems to be the most popular, with big Pinot celebrations in Oregon, Alsace and the Hemel-en-Aarde region of South Africa. Riesling also gets some attention, with the Riesling Rendezvous being held in Seattle every third year (2019’s event was postponed to 2020: see https://flxcursion.com/wp).
Not all wine events are huge. The annual (or near-annual) Fête du Vin in the tiny hamlet of Chassignolles in Auvergne only has about 10 stands manned by producers who appear on the local auberge’s wine list, but is an unmissable weekend of convivial feasting.
Some are quirky, like the Virginia Wine and Garlic Festival (motto ‘Eat, Drink, Stink’), or the Barrels & Beards festival in Bot River, South Africa, which sees winemakers from the region competing to grow the most luxuriant beard during harvest. In Catalonia there is a phylloxera festival, Festa
