Annual wine festivals celebrate viticulture and usually occur after the harvest of the grapes which, in the northern hemisphere, generally falls at the end of September and runs until well into October or later. They are common in most wine regions around the world and are to be considered in the tradition of other harvest festivals.
The Egyptian god Osiris was dedicated to wine, but the oldest historically documented wine festivals can be traced back to the Greek celebrations for their wine god Dionysos. The typical ingredients of a wine festival include wine drinking, grape pressing, regional foods, music and, in many areas, religious ritual.
In culture
The grape, and the extraction of its juice to produce wine, is more than a flavorsome food or drink. Both grapes and wine have immense cultural significance in many cultures, and often religious significance too.
Competitions
Oregon Wine Competition Concours Mondial de Bruxelles International Wine and Spirit Competition Varsity blind wine tasting match
Festivals
Armenian festivals Areni Wine Festival Yerevan Wine Days Australian festivals
Barossa Vintage Festival Caxton Street Seafood and Wine Festival Grampians Grape Escape Kings Cross Food and Wine Festival Melbourne Food and Wine Festival
Brazilian festivals Festa do Vinho (Santa Catarina) Festa do Vinho de Andradas
Canadian festivals Cowichan Wine and Culinary Festival, British Columbia Niagara Grape and Wine Festival
German festivals Baden Wine festival calendar Hessische Bergstraße Winzerfest, Groß-Umstadt Mosel Moselfest, Winningen Weinfest der Mittelmosel, Bernkastel-Kues Palatinate Burg- und Weinfest, Wachenheim Deidesheimer Weinkerwe, Deidesheim Deutsches Weinlesefest, Neustadt Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt, Bad Dürkheim Eselshautfest, Mußbach Fest des Federweißen, Landau Kändelgassenfest, Großkarlbach Mandelblütenfest, Gimmeldingen Stadtmauerfest, Freinsheim
Rheingau Rheingauer Weinwoche, Wiesbaden Rheinhessen Weinmarkt Mainz, Mainz Backfischfest, Worms Saxony Herbst- und Weinfest, Radebeul Württemberg Fellbacher Herbst, Fellbach Stuttgarter Weindorf, Stuttgart
French festivals Beaujolais Nouveau Bordeaux Wine Festival, Bordeaux, France la paulee de mersault, Burgundy, France тРыФ
Hungarian festivals
Badacsony Wine Weeks, Badacsonytomaj Balatonboglár Grape Harvest Days, Balatonboglár Balatonfüred Wine Weeks, Balatonfüred BorZsongás, wine festival of Villány Budapest International Wine Festival, Budapest - the largest Hungarian wine festival (about 50,000 people per festival) Budavári Borfesztivál, Budapest Eger Grape Harvest Festival, Eger Eger Star Wine Festival (Egri Csillag Borfesztivál), Eger Etyek Cellar Festival, Etyek Gourmet Festival, Budapest Grape Harvest Festival of Tokaj-Hegyalja, Tokaj Győr Wine Days, Győr Pannonhalma Wine Region Cellar Festival, Pannonhalma Rosé Riesling and Jazz Days, Veszprém Sopron Grape Harvest Days, Sopron Szekszárd Grape Harvest Festival, Szekszárd Tihany Grape Harvest Days, Tihany Tokaj Wine Festival, Tokaj Villány Grape Harvest Festival, Villány VinAgora, Budapest Wine Festival of Balaton's wines, Budapest
United States festivals
Beaujolais Wine Festival, Dallas, TexasDallas Texas Annual Beaujolais Wine Festival Boston Wine Festival, Massachusetts Cleveland Wine festival, Cleveland, Ohio Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival, Miami Beach, Florida French Quarter Wine Festival, New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans Louisiana, French Quarter Wine Festival Hilton Head Island Wine and Food Festival, one of the oldest in the US Keystone Wine and Jazz Festival, Keystone, Colorado Maryland Wine Festival, Maryland Naples Grape Festival, Naples, New York North Carolina Wine Festival Paso Robles Wine Festival, California San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, California Simply Wine Festival, California Oregon Wine Experience, Oregon Tallahassee Wine and Food Festival, Florida Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival, California Vendemmia Festival Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Vendemmia Festival Societa' DaVinci, Wilmington, Delaware
Argentinian festivals Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia, Mendoza City, Argentina Médanos, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Other festivals
Feria Nacional de San Marcos, Aguascalientes, Mexico Festival of Wine, United Kingdom Haro Wine Festival, Haro, Spain Port Wine Fest, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal Qormi Wine Festival, Malta Vendemmia Festival Sicily, Sicily, ItalyVendemmia Festival, Sicily, Italy Vineyard Harvest of Surco, Santiago de Surco, Peru Wine Festival of Cyprus, Limassol, Republic of Cyprus Zielona Góra Wine Fest, Poland
See also Bacchanalia History of French wine Italian wine
References
External links List of Balkan wine festivals