Beautiful day for the Chautauqua Wine Festival
Chautauqua Wine Festival is hosted by the Chautauqua Winery two times a year. One in the spring (May) and one in the fall (October). They are a one-day event from that runs from 9:00-5:00. The festival takes place at the Chautauqua Winery located at Defuniak Springs Florida.
The main attraction is the wine tasting of course. They have a huge tent set up with all the wine Chautauqua Winery offers to sample. Pick up a paper with the wines listed on it and sample away. Make sure you mark your paper, so you know which ones you like the best. Wonderful way to taste the different wines. I even found a new favorite.
Purchasing Wine
There is another tent set up to purchase bottles to take home with you. They do have a discount if you by a case (12). In addition, you can also buy by the glass or by the bottle, to enjoy while you enjoy the rest of the Chautauqua Wine Festival.
Arts & Crafts
There are several arts and crafts tents with everything from woodworking and jewelry to essential oils. You can walk around enjoying the crafts while sipping on your wine.
Music
Cadillac Willy a local band out of Destin performed a great variety of music for the day. So after we walked around and tasted the wine and looked at the crafts we set up our lawn chairs and sat down and enjoyed the music. Several got up and danced to their favorite songs.
Food
We brought a picnic lunch but there are food booths if you want to purchase food at the festival. They also had tables and chairs set up so if you did not bring lawn chairs there were places to sit.
Lots of sun early we did manage to get our chairs in a small piece of shade. So dress in cool clothes maybe even some sunscreen as it got pretty warm.
Gift Shop
Chautauqua Gift shop is full of wonderful gifts for yourself or a great gift for the wine enthusiast in your life. Wine Glasses, plaques, t-shirts and so much more. In the back hall (leading to the bathroom) they have a history wall with lots pictures from the actual vineyard which is just north of the winery. Down that hall is where they do the wine tasting if you are just visiting the winery on a non-festival day. And behind that you can see the room where the grapes are turned into wine.
Chautauqua Wine Festival is very relaxing and enjoyable day we look forward to the October Festival.
Visit the Winery in Defuniak Spring’s website for more information about the Chautauqua Wine Festival.
Leave a Reply