Billy Joel sings “A bottle of white/A bottle of red/Perhaps a bottle of rosé instead…” in his 1977 song “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.”
But there’s so much more to wine than what is on that record, and the Park City Wine Festival will prove it.
The event, now in its fifth iteration, will run Oct. 3-5 at Canyons Village, and it will feature 20 wine-related workshops, seminars, tastings and even hikes, said Kristen Slater, the festival’s marketing director.
“We will include over 100 wineries and more than 500 wines this year, and the wineries come from all over the world,” she said. “This year, there are 12 different counties and more than 30 different wine regions.”
Wineries include Piattelli Vineyards from Argentina, Premium Port Wines from Portugal, Santa Rita from Chile, Terlato Wines from Slovenia as well many more from the United States, Slater said.
“We have some wines that are normally available in the state of Utah, and there are some that aren’t usually available in Utah that we make arrangements for and order,” she said. “And that’s exciting.”
In addition to wineries, the event will feature spirits from Cascade Spirits from the Pacific Northwest, Luxco Spirits from Missouri and Ogden’s Own Distillery from Utah, according to Slater.
“They all reach out to us, and we work with them throughout the year to get them involved,” she said.
This year’s wine festival will feature wine-lovers’ favorites such as the Grand Tastings that run Oct. 4 and 5 throughout Canyons Village, and Best of Fest that is scheduled for Oct. 4 at Red Pine Lodge, Slater said.
“With the Grand Tastings, it’s so rare that you get to try so many different wines in a row,” she said. “So I think it’s really fun for people because they get to expand their palate and dive into finding out what wines they love. And there is so much that people can learn in this type of setting where they can partake of small samples from a lot of different places — whether it’s finding out they love sauvignon blancs from New Zealand or that they find they love pinots over cabernets.”
Best of Fest, on the other hand, features “the gems” of the Park City Wine Festival in an evening tasting, Slater said.
Participating wineries select the finest reserve bottles that are paired with small bites at the Red Pine Lodge, she said.
A new event, Rarities & Reserve, which is scheduled for Oct. 5, is similar to Best of Fest, according to Slater.
“It’s another, more intimate experience for less than 200 people at Red Pine Lodge at the top of the Gondola,” she said. “What is really cool about this event is it features rare and boutique wines, some from wineries you don’t hear much about and some that you won’t find at the liquor store. My favorite part is that we’re getting several of the winemakers and winery owners out to speak about the wines directly with participants.”
Last year, the Park City Wine Festival introduced an event called Wine Is Blind, which it will bring back on Oct. 4, Slater said.
“It’s kind of a spin off of the idea that love is blind, and we thought it would be fun, especially for people who are new to wine or who are trying to expand their palette,” she said.
During Wine Is Blind, participants will taste up to 22 different wines without seeing their labels and not knowing their grape varietals, Slater said.
“You just get to dive into the flavors and see what you like and what you don’t,” she said. “We’ll give out score cards so people who want to can keep track. Then in the last hour of the event, we remove all of the bags from the bottles so you can see what you tried and what you liked or didn’t like. It’s fun because you can judge a wine based on your personal preferences.”
Two seminars — Cabernet Creations Blending and the Sommelier Selections — will add to this year’s festivities, Slater said.
“Cab creations will give participants a chance to learn about grape selections and balancing flavors with wines from Freemark Abbey,” she said. “They will bring 100% pure cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, petite verdot and malbec, and people will get to mix their own perfect glass of wine in this incredible and very exclusive seminar. It’s so rare that you get to try a wine that is 100% of a varietal, and that’s something that is awesome.”
Jim Santengelo from the Wine Academy of Utah will lead the Sommelier Selections Seminar and offer an array of fine wines that will be artfully paired with light bites by the culinary team at Palomino Park City, Slater said.
“Jim has been a partner of ours for many, many years, and he’s just so knowledgeable about the different regions and varietals,” she said. “He has meticulously hand-selected wines for this seminar.”
Not all Park City Wine Festival events are formal tastings, Slater said.
“There are three Hikes & Lunch events on the schedule,” she said. “They are my favorite, because you get to go on hikes with winemakers, representatives or owners. And that gives you more of a one-on-one experience with them.”
Registration for all of these events and more is now open to anyone ages 21 and older, Slater said.
“Everything is ticketed a la carte, so you can choose what you want,” she said. “Or if you want to do one event per day or are interested in the more-educational events, you can decide how to do that because there’s something for everyone.”
Slater is also grateful the festival is once again partnering with the Canyons Village Management Association.
“They have been with us from the start, and Canyons is such a beautiful backdrop for this kind of event,” she said. “I personally think wine tastes better outside, and there’s something about that fresh mountain air that adds to the experience. It’s also so amazing to be able to walk out of your hotel room to attend the grand tasting and walk back to your room.”
Park City Wine Festival
- When: Oct. 3-5
- Where: Canyons Village
- Registration: parkcitywinefest.com/schedule
- Web: parkcitywinefest.com