At The Next Virginia Wine Festival: Find The Spiked Food Truck?

Edgy Food Trucks At Wine Festivals

What Is The Spiked Food Truck And What Does It Have To Do With Wine Festivals?

I am still perseverating on food trucks and their role in our Virginia Wine Festivals. On the one hand they are a quick and simple way to bring food to the wine festivals. On top of that, many of them offer gourmet infused dishes that fit the upper scale reputation of a wine festival. But I still want more..

I am looking for these to be little gourmet restaurants with sleek well designed vehicles to boot. I guess that is a little unrealistic. So I will settle for unique. This brings us to the Spiked Food Truck (company). I saw this food truck company on a sentence concerning Glass House Winery Music Night. It made a point to say that that the Spiked Food Truck would be there.

At first I wondered what made this food truck so special as a bonus to the wine and music. What makes it special is it is unusual, edgy and different. The package of a food truck is not all that exciting but this idea of bringing unusual booze fueled creations to a wine festival seems like a great pairing of the unique. 

Virginia Wine Festival Primer

What To Expect At The Festival

With all this talk about wine festivals I thought a little blurb about what to expect or look at  might be interesting (or amusing). I saw an article actually mentioning that some wineries will run out of wine at the festivals. I am not saying this phenomenon will happen in the Old Dominion but it is interesting to find out why it could happen.

Will The Wine Run Out?

According to the Wine blog Tablas Creek this is by design and is an element of branding. Building scarcity gives the effect that the wine is:

• rare
• extremely popular

And that image is vital when you consider there are twenty or thirty other vineyards serving as comparison markers. I guess I can see the logic. At the very least it forces you to hit certain wineries first when you go to the festivals. Obviously you are fresher at the beginning of the festival. This discernment may give wines sampled early a tactical advantage. You figure as the festivals go on some of the wines may begin to blend with each other in the patrons mind.

Moving On...To Spittoon Or Not To Spittoon

There were some really good tips. From swirling the wine around to aspirate to open up flavor you could see why there is such an air of class surrounding this industry. Until you get to the section on cleansing your palette. Cleansing your palette is a code phrase for spitting out the wine.

This sounds gross and undignified. On the other hand you are not going to be sharp enough to continue judging wines after you have swallowed for a while. So what do you do? I would look at the people with me. If I was with real wine experts I would ask them what they plan to do. If they spit I would not feel as weird.

Now if it is Saturday at the Vintage Wine Festival at Bull Run I might think twice. That is just me. 

Why Not Take A Tour To The Next Virginia Festival

Spring is in full bloom. Everything is green. Why not enhance your next wine festival with the panache of a wine tour group. There are lots of wine tours to consider. In fact, this setting may offer the best way to enjoy a festival.

The Northern VA Wine Tour

The Northern Virginia Wine Tour

Bring on the Nova Wine Tour. The Northern Virginia Wine Tour offers you a convenient way to enjoy the upcoming festivities.

Vintage Virginia Wine Festival

This particular tour is linked to the Vintage Virginia Wine and Food Festival which looks to be a spectacular mix of food, fun, and wine. An added bonus to this festival is there will be top chefs present. One of the biggest questions people have is how to pair wine with food. Well have your questions ready.

Advantages To A Wine Tour That May SEEM trivial but....

I was looking over the list of some of the advantages of taking the tour route to the Vintage Virginia Festival. Yes the souvenir glass is nice but I really like the fact that the bus tour has their own tent which can provide you with

• Water
• shelter

A Safe Trip Back

These may seem unimportant but you do not always know the weather and it says a lot that you have these available. Also there is something to be said about not even having the possibility of driving under the influence. Why risk it. Sober up on the bus ride back and write your super review on Yelp using your iphone (just a suggestion)

 GourmetFood Cuisine Trucks At Vintage Wine   Festival

I know food trucks at a wine festival are nothing new but I also noticed it is listed as a category.

Check Out The Food Trucks

I have seen the phrase food trucks will be there but here it is an official category. In fact if you click the link there are some pretty gourmet food trucks awaiting you including:

•  Red Bone Fusion Caribbean Catering
•  Red Hook Lobster Pound 
•  Scoops2U Artisinal small batch ice cream
•  Tapas Truck
•  Sherri's Crab Cake 
• and more...

 My votes is for a crabcake sandwich with a Viognier.

Virginia Wineappalooza Wine Festival

Most Exciting Name For a Wine Event Or Festival: Wineappalooza

If there was a category for most exciting Virginia wine festival name, Wineappalooza would win hands down.

DuCard Winery is home to Wineappalooza

There are no bad Virginia festivals or bad wine festival names. Regardless I love this millennial generation name for a very traditional thing like wine.

This festival at the Ducard Winery looks like it has a high fun factor. On top of a very low entry point of $10 (if purchased in advance) it offers:

• 2 live bands
• Food from local pork and beef restaurants
• Craft Vendors
• A Ducard Winery logo glass
• No charge for kids, dogs, or designated drivers

Backup..no charge for dogs. That means I can bring my dog? Sign me up. I doubt a wine festival with dogs is very snooty. In fact that alone makes me want to go.

For tickets from Ducard Winery go here


This Wine Event Takes Place:

Saturday, May 17, 2014, 12-7 PM

Ducard Winery
40 Gibson Hollow Lane
Etlan VA 22719

Wine, Festivals, And Fun In Botetourt, Virginia

Follow The Wine Trail...To Botetourt

If you go to wine festivals you probably are very familiar with the term wine trail. As far as finding good festivals the Wine Trail of Botetourt is a good place to start. Four really good events are coming up along the Trail de Botetourt including:

• Annual Barrel Tasting At Virginia Mountain Vineyards
• The Sounds of Summer Series at the Blue Ridge Vineyards
• Buchanon's First Arts, Antiques, Garden, And Wine Festival (that is a mouthful)
• The Summer Concert Series At Fincastle Vineyard

The Virginia Wine & Craft Festival

Things To Do, Virginia Vintage To Sample

Front Royal is the location for The Virginia Wine And Craft Festival

It is Spring in Virginia and that means wine festivals. Well it also means craft festivals,outdoor events, picnics..etc. So why not kill two birds with one stone and enjoy crafts and wine at the same time. Well now you can!

The Virginia Wine and Craft Festival offers a lot of things do as well as access to award winning Virginia Wine. In fact 20 of Virginia's best wineries will be there. On top of that there will be all types of crafts including hand painted glasses, pottery, and of course traditional art.

The food, for lack of a more precise word, sounds spectacular. If you can pair it with the perfect Virginia wine variety, even better. Some of the delectable arterial dangerous delights that will be at Front Royal are:

• fresh roasted nuts
• crab cake sandwiches
• steak-n-cheese sandwiches
• shish kabobs

I am thinking a robust red wine with the steak and cheese, who knows:)

The Time and Date

May 17, 2014
10:00 AM until 06:00 PM

For more information go to Virginia Wine Lover Magazine Virginia Wine & Craft Festival


The Host Location: Front Royal, Virginia

Other Things to Do In Front Royal:

 Before the festival take a drive along Skyline Drive. It is Spring and a beautiful time to take in the scenery.