Great lakes, Finger Lakes, lakes of all sizes have advanced Western New York as one of the country’s leading wine-growing areas.
In just a little more than a week, America’s Grape Country Wine Festival will be celebrating all that is wine with an emphasis on Chautauqua County and New York wineries. Joining jus this morning is Jason Merritt, general manager of Merritt Winery.
This event has wineries from all over the state as well as some distilleries and few cideries, not as many breweries because he says they operate differently but they encourage that participation. Jason says we bring in vendors from all across the state so people in this region can experience their products.
This is the 15th year of the event. They did take one year off during COVID, and they brought it back last year and had a 60% turnout, which he says was better than expected with everything that was going on and they are back to full capacity this year.
There will be food demonstrations with cooking and wine. There are two buildings and 72 booth vendors not inclusive of what is outside. Vendors include food vendors, craft vendors, and alcohol vendors. You can also watch a chainsaw carver carve something beautiful out of hunk of wood.
You can also stay and play. If you would like to stay overnight, they have an area where you can camp overnight. The event is located on the Chautauqua County fairgrounds in Dunkirk and Jason says they take over the whole fairgrounds and they have access to their largest campground area and there is 50 – 60 campsites. There are a few small sites left and once they fill up, they are going to offer dry camping sites at a discount.
For more information go to agcwinefestival.com
