Wine, Shopping, Food and Grape Stomping

Every Fall, they gather from miles around for a stomping good time in Algoma. It is the Wet Whistle Wine Festival at the Von Stiehl Winery. This was the first year that we were able to actually make it to the festival... always too many other things going on!

We arrived just as they were getting the first round of grape stomping underway! What could be more fun than stomping on a barrel of grapes while the crowd cheers on! Everyone had their own method and style to getting the job done. In the end, it was not about how many grapes you stomped and how much juice you got, it was all about the response from the crowd! So I guess it is best of you bring a LARGE cheering section with you!!

And you cant have wine without food! From Chili to cheese, smoked salmon to brats, they had it all! The artisan bread was super too. We met up with Elle and Ellen from the Meet-up Group that we are part of - Food, Fun and Friendship. What a great afternoon! We sampled a few wines that we found to be wonderful and bought a bottle to share as we strolled the festival grounds, listening to the live music and watching the fun.

No trip to the Wine festival is complete without a stop at the actual Winery, just a few blocks from the festival grounds. For those that do not want to walk the few blocks, they have the Wine Train available for you to ride... so why walk when you can ride! At the winery we got to sample even more wine - many that they did not have at the festival, as will as purchase wine to take home.

So of course we had to buy some! But we had to bring that wine back to the car before heading back in to the festival, as no carry-in's were allowed. Cool thing... they had a golf cart that you could ride back to your car to drop off your purchases! WooHoo! Unfortunately, there was no way that 4 adults and Darrin were going to fit on the one golf cart... so we let Elle and Ellen ride with Darrin and John and I walked back. Apparently Elle and Ellen has some issues with staying ON the back of the golf cart....

Another afternoon of great fun and friends! For the complete set of pictures from today's adventures, head to our Flickr site!