by Tom Johnson
‘Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

The location (at Fest-a-Ville on the Waterfront) is lovely, the spirit of the attendees properly festive and the wines are – well, they’re local. That’s the nature of the beast and anyone who doesn’t care for local wines can leave the rest of us to our joyful misery.

Still, there are things the DerbyFest could do to make the WineFest a better experience. Here they are:

1. Less standing in line, more festival. Waiting 10 minutes in line between tastes sucks. The main delay was the decision-making process each of us had to go through at the head of the line, when we confronted tasting menus sometimes 12 wines long. The solution: bigger, more visible signs so we can decide what we want before we get there, and fewer choices. Let each winery put its best four offerings forward.
2. Less tent, more location. The Overlook – the sandy, fountain-intensive elevation to the left (facing the river) of the Great Lawn – is a spectacular location. Festival organizers simply couldn’t have done better. So why enclose everything in a big tent? I understand planning for rain, but there’s no reason the tent couldn’t be open at the north end to make river and bridge views a larger part of the event. Also, wineries could have wandering servers outside so people wouldn’t have to spend so much time inside.
3. More dump buckets. The sandy surface atop the Overlook is engineered to absorb rain, which means tasters can spit and dump as much as they like. But most of the attendees didn’t seem comfortable flinging leftovers down on the ground, which tempts the fastidious among us to drink too much. Some of the wineries provided dump buckets; some didn’t. A lot more scattered around the place would be a big help.
4. Use bigger glasses. The souvenir glasses were too small to really get a sense of the wine. It’s a wine tasting, for heaven’s sake. People ought to be able to swirl their wine without splashing it onto the person standing next to them.
5. Give the gift on the way out. Sponsor American Founders Bank gave each ticket buyer a hard-cover wine tote, which is a pretty nice gift. The problem is, they gave us the totes on the way in, so we had to carry the damned things around while also balancing food, wine, a small guidebook, the shaking of hands and the execution of air kisses. It would be much more convenient if the gift were given on the way out.