Last Saturday, I attended the annual Cleveland Wine Festival. I knew that the day was going to be featuring all different kinds of wines from various wineries all over the Northeast Ohio region. The layout was similar to the one at the Rib Burn-Off a month ago but the location was different. Instead of the venue where the Rib Burn-Off was at the Tower City Amphitheather downtown, the Wine Festival was in Voinovich Park by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Great Lakes Science Center. The festivities started around 1:00 pm and I stayed here until 6:00 pm.
I walked around the venue for a little bit to get a feel for the place. I immediately spotted a winery that I was familiar with, Ferrante. I stopped and sampled a glass of Merlot. The Merlot had a warm but rich flavor to it. I like red and wine wines but I favor red a bit more. I do not know exactly why- maybe it is the dryness and the warmth of the red wines that hits my tongue and exudes its flavor. Many of the white wines were also very flavorful but were sweet as well. Each of the servings of wine whether it was white or red, were one ounce each. At the door, my $30 paid for entrance, the wine glass, and 10 tickets.
There was something that caught me offguard. I thought that this was exclusively a wine tasting festival. I was wrong! There was also a small beer section as well. The free ticket came with my 10 purchased wine tickets. I used up most of my wine tickets before I spotted the secluded area. Before I headed to the beer section of the festival, I purchased food for myself and my sister, who accompanied me on the trip. I had a fish taco (halibut, to be more precise) and my sister had a gyro. Good food!
We sat for a while and enjoyed some musical entertainment and wine demonstrations. The wine demonstrations were informative and you even had the opportunity to participate in the act. I did not participate but it was fun to watch while I was eating my food. After resting in the sunshine for a bit longer, we walked to the back of the venue to find ourselves in the beer section. I did not know what to expect. The three types of beer was brands I never heard of. I tried two of them: Hoegaarden and Stella Artois. I believe one is Swedish and the other is French. The other surprising thing about the beer selection (well, two) was that the beer was not a sample (you cannot really sample beer like you can wine) and that the beer was in nice, shiny glasses. These glasses did not look cheap and the serving was probably around the size of a regular beer can (12 oz or so). Nevertheless, the beer was good- it was just unexpected.
The day continued and actually dragged on longer than expected for two reasons. The first one was expected: I purchased another 10 wine tickets. Once again, I rested after drinking the beer to savor the flavor and to look at the beer demonstration across from the vendors. I walked around for a little bit and decided to get the 10 additional tickets. I went through six of the additional tickets before my sister purchased another meal. It was when I was sitting down the second reason for staying than expected happened. This time, the event was unexpected. As I was sitting down waiting for my sister to come back with more food, a guy walks up to me and gives me an additional 12 tickets. Oh boy!! I had mixed emotions at that point because I was ready to finish off the remaining four tickets I already had. What I did was handed my sister half of the tickets and waited again for a little while before going to other vendors. At this time, it was around 5:30 pm and I was starting to feel exasperated and hot from being out in the sun all afternoon. I had to use common sense if I wanted to get home in one peace. I used a couple of the tickets and discarded the rest. I was happy with how the day went: no complications and a few fortuitous events. We took the train and the RTA back home as the train station was nearby (4-5 short blocks) to take in everything that happened. This event happens once every year so I really was happy when became of age to attend and to enjoy the fine winery (and beer)!
Enjoying a brief break from the monotonous scenery of my home,
Hasani Wheat
Class of '10
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