Beaufort, South Carolina

Beaufort, SC
Travel Article

Beaufort Wine & Brew Fest 2005

One of my favorite fall festivals is always the Wine & Brew Fest coordinated by the Beaufort Water Festival Committee.  It is usually held late October to early November and we are usually blessed with incredible weather.  On Saturday Oct 29, the sun shone brightly and the air had just a tinge of coolness.  It was the perfect day and the perfect venue.  Beaufort Yacht Club sits right on the Beaufort River and overlooks historic downtown.  The view is spectacular. The event fee is $25 for an official wine and brew glass, unlimited wine and brew tasting as well food offered by local restaurants.   

We like to attend the Wine fest in March in Hilton Head because just the sheer number  and variety of wines are incredible, but we love this festival best.  It is so much more intimate.  All the wines tasted are available at our local Bill's liquor store.  The purveyors were set up in small white tents lining the river bank.  A lovely jazz trio was playing in the background and you could not have felt more special.  Our first tent was Frederick Wildman where we began with Folonari Brio Prosecco, a lovely Italian sparking wine, then a light Folonari Shiraz and a chianti all around the $8.99 price range.  The next tent offered Raymond Vineyard Reserves from Napa.  I had not heard of Raymond Vineyard before but was informed it is one of the oldest wineries in Napa.  The Chardonnay was light with a butter finish for $12.99. At the Foster's Wine Estates tent we found an excellent Matua Sauvignon Blanc .  I'm a huge fan of Sauvignon Blanc and for $9.99 fell in love with this one.  Etude Pinot Noir was very nice but carries a $39.99 price tag.  We really did not care for the Greg Norman Sparkling particularly at $17.49.  What can you expect we really don't care for the man.  Two wonderful restaurants Bateaux and Emily's offered food pairing tidbits.  I matched Emily's blackened shrimp to the Sauvignon Blanc and Bateaux's veal & shrimp balls to the Pinot Noir.  They were both excellent pairings.  It is incredible how you can taste a wine alone  and then taste the food with the wine and the taste is quite another flavor.  I love to pair food and wine and this was a lovely practice ground.

We moved on to the Trinchero Family tent offering  wines we are quite familiar with. One of our favorites has always been an unassuming wine, Montevina.  This time we saw bold new labels and catching names such as you see in labeling trends presently.  Wild Bunch Red and Wild Bunch white are nice wines for simple meals.  We love to serve them with pizza, burgers, salad or quesadillas.  They are not bold but they match simple food so well and with a price tag of $9.99 it is a perfect match. At the Brittany & W J Deutsch tent we found my favorite for the day.  Osborne Bianco at an incredibly low price of $6.99  At the Delicato Family Vineyards we found three great Clay Station wines; a viognier, a malbec, and a  Petite Syrah were all very good for $8.98.  An inexpensive way to introduce new wines to your friends and family. People kept walking across the lawn requesting a taste of the viognier because they heard it was so great.  At this table we met a lovely young couple and had the nicest conversation for awhile over some other nice wines at this tent we forgot to write down.

Our next stop was with an old wine friend, Sharon from Rodney Strong Vineyards.  Surprisingly she was serving a bottle of wine called Symmetry that sells for $59.99.  It was a very lovely wine.  The British Open Pub was next serving chili or chicken pot pie.  We tried both and they were excellent.  There were about five more tables and a few food tables but by that point we were socializing , enjoying the day and every now and then would try a wine from one of the last tables but for the most part we headed off to the Pearlstines Brew cart and chatted with our friend Brian who works hard at every Water Festival Event.  Next to that was the jazz trio so I went over to get their name.  They were so perfect for the day and the female vocalist was incredible.  Her name is Penney Petersen and she has a CD titled As It Should Be.  The instrumentals were provided by two young men who are part of a large band called The Swingtime Orchestra.  It was the perfect Saturday afternoon at the end of October.  If you saw us walk back to our car contented and romanced by the sailboats, river and live oak trees it would have been testimonial on its own that this is a fall festival not to be missed.

For more information on 2006 Wine & Brew fest or Water Festival beginning July 14 

  www.bftwaterfestival.com/  

Make your travel plans early.  These events are not to be missed.

For more details about events, contact
Beaufort County , P.O. Box 52,
Beaufort, South Carolina 29901
or call 843-524-0600

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