Events and Tastings

WineEnabler.com is starting-up a Wine Events in Austin Calendar that will feature wine tastings, wine dinners, wine bar deals, and special wine events in and around the Austin area. Software programming being what it is, it will take us a little time to get the calendar up and running, so in the meantime check out the list of upcoming wine events. If you know about a wine event or deal that you would like to share with us, please email us at:

Wine Tastings

Wine Bats of Austin offer blind tastings every Wednesday night at Green Pastures (by reservation only). Tastings include 6 wines and 6 cheeses for $25 per person. A three course meal is available for another $25. Upcoming blind tastings include: wine of Italy September 3; wine of Napa Valley September 10; and the wine of Sonoma on September 17.
http://www.winebat.com/

The Austin Wine Merchant serves-up a wine tasting every Saturday from Noon until 3:00 pm. Upcoming tastings include Chateau Montelena on September 6 and Pedroncelli on September 13.
http://www.theaustinwinemerchant.com/

Grapevine Market has two current tasting programs. The first is called Friday Night Flights (FNF). FNF is a blind tasting featuring four wines selected from a rotating list of eight wines. Participants try the wines blind and vote on the top two wines. On Saturdays, Grapevine offers open tastings from wines selected from in store offerings.
http://www.grapevinemarket.com/

Wine Dinners

Jasper’s of Austin offers wine dinners once or twice each month on either a Monday or a Wednesday. Upcoming dinners include: Domain Darioush which will take place at Chef Kent’s home September 10 at 6:30 PM with Khaledi and Dan de Polo of Darioush; Hook and Ladder Wine Dinner with Michael Deloache on September 22 at 6:30 PM; Patz and Hall Wine Dinner with Donald Patz on October 6 at 6:30 PM; and Miner Family Wine Dinner with Dave Miner on November 5 at 6:30 PM.
http://www.kentrathbun.com/winedinners.php

III Forks Restaurant periodically offers wine dinners. Dinners scheduled so far include: Nickel & Nickel Wine Dinner on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 featuring a five course dinner paired with the new releases of Nickel & Nickel and Dolce wines; and Krupp Brothers Estates Wine Dinner on Saturday, January 24, 2009.
http://www.3forks.com/special_events.php

Mirabelle is the grandfather of wine dinners in Austin and is still going strong. Their next wine dinner is scheduled for September 8 and will feature the wines of D’Arenberg.
http://www.mirabellerestaurant.com

Wine Bar Deals

Cork & Co. offers 25% off all wine flights on Wednesdays nights for September and October.
http://www.corkandco.com/5/Events_and_Classes.htm

Special Wine Events

Field of Dreams Wine Tasting and Auction at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock. The Field of Dreams will include a tasting of wines from Francis Ford Coppola’s winery, and a barbeque cook-off between baseball’s Nolan Ryan and his beef and UT’s Earl Campbell and his sausage.
http://www.roundrockexpress.com/

22nd Annual Grapefest in Grapevine Texas held in Grapevine, Texas September 11th through 14th. This festival features over 50 different Texas wineries and their wines.
http://www.grapevinetexasusa.com/

We went to the Austin Wine Festival this past Memorial Day weekend. It was the second time around for the festival, but the first time for both of us. Along with some music and demonstrations, there were 22 wineries there from Central Texas.

Neil and his wife attended on Saturday, which was the first day of the festival. The gates opened at 3pm, by which time the Texas sun was beating down on the Festival grounds located at the site of the new Whole Foods Market at the Domain. Michael attended on Monday, the last day of the festival, and the gates opened a little earlier at 1pm. The sun was, however, also beating down on Monday.

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This is just a friendly reminder that the 2nd annual Austin Wine Festival will be held Memorial Day weekend, Saturday (May 24th) through Monday (May 26th) at the Domain in North Austin.

We’ll be there. Come out and show your support of Texas wines.