BG Wine Fest brings big crowd after year’s hiatus | News

Additionally they sipped some wine.

Like lots of an estimated 500 guests to the Bowling Inexperienced Wine Pageant on the RailPark, Miller and Missal wanted to quench their thirst for socialization as a lot as for the beverage from fermented grapes.

“It’s very good to have the ability to get out once more,” mentioned Missal, an Illinois native who retired to Bowling Inexperienced two years in the past.

Missal, her sister and their husbands have been sampling wines from most of the eight wineries arrange contained in the depot for an occasion that was held in 2018 and 2019 however was canceled final yr as a result of coronavirus pandemic.

As she stood in entrance of the sales space for Rockfield-based Traveler’s Cellar Vineyard and sampled a few of its product, Miller joined her sister in welcoming the return of the wine fest.

“I’ve been to all three (wine fests),” mentioned Miller, who moved to Bowling Inexperienced seven years in the past. “The persons are at all times pleasant, and it’s good to have all of the wineries represented in a single place so that you don’t must journey.”

Judging from the lengthy line that had fashioned on the ticket desk as Miller was talking, she had loads of firm in welcoming the chance to get out of the home and pattern some pink, white and rosé wines.

“We offered extra advance tickets this yr than we did for the primary two occasions,” mentioned Jamie Johnson, government director of the RailPark. “You possibly can inform folks have been hungry to get out and go to an in-person occasion.”

And never simply folks from Bowling Inexperienced. Johnson mentioned advance tickets have been offered to wine lovers from Indiana, Tennessee and even from as far-off as Montana.

It’s a welcome response for Johnson, who is dependent upon the wine fest as a significant fundraiser for the nonprofit vacationer website and missed that earnings final yr.

“There’s no approach to make up for the income we misplaced final yr,” Johnson mentioned. “However we’re anticipating greater than 500 folks right this moment, which will probably be up from 450 in 2019.”

The occasion has grown in different methods, providing dwell music for the primary time and increasing its meals choices from one vendor to 4.

Johnson mentioned she hopes to usher in $10,000 to $15,000 from the occasion, which is a shared fundraiser with the nonprofit Kentucky Wineries Affiliation that was fashioned in 2007 to serve Kentucky’s rising wine business.

“We’ve got a fantastic partnership with the RailPark,” mentioned Brian Younger, proprietor of Nicholasville’s 1922 Home vineyard and treasurer for the KWA. “This occasion raises cash for the affiliation, and it raises consciousness for each the affiliation and the RailPark.”

Saturday’s wine fest was the second in-person occasion Younger has attended since pandemic restrictions have been lifted, and he mentioned the response from the general public has been good.

“We did one occasion in Elizabethtown, and it was packed,” he mentioned. “Individuals are chomping on the bit to get out.”

With Kentucky’s wine business rising steadily to the place a Kentucky Division of Agriculture publication now lists 77 wineries statewide, Younger hopes Kentuckians are additionally chomping on the bit to attempt some Bluegrass State vino.

“When persons are buying wine, they will purchase from California or they will buy Kentucky wine and assist their neighbors,” he mentioned.

Many examples of Kentucky’s increasing wine economic system have been on show Saturday, together with Smiths Grove-based Bluegrass Winery.

Jessica Rogers, co-owner along with her husband of Bluegrass Vineyard, mentioned it has been in enterprise 4 years and is “increasing slightly bit extra yearly.”

“We began in our basement,” Rogers mentioned. “We’ve got 30 acres, together with four-and-a-half acres planted with grapevines. We’re nearly completed with a brand new wine manufacturing facility.”

Rogers mentioned occasions like Saturday’s wine fest are nice alternatives for wine producers.

“We love coming right here and getting so many wineries collectively directly,” she mentioned. “Folks can come out and see what Kentucky wineries have to supply.”