SOUTH FORK - A new festival is coming to South Fork this weekend and those who have tickets are in for a treat. The inaugural South Fork Wine and Chocolate Festival, hosted by the Town of South Fork and the Rio Grande Club and Resort, will feature fine wines from selected wineries and chocolate from professional artisans.
According to event coordinator Celeste Anderson, the coming weekend is going to be packed with fun for the entire family.
“This is a family friendly event, and we even have tickets for those who do not like wine or just don’t drink. We will have great music, delicious food and lots of fun,” said Anderson.
The two-day festival kicks off on Saturday at 11 a.m. The Rio Grande Club and Resort located in South Fork will be transformed into a wine and chocolate paradise. Tickets for the event, including tickets for the VIP tent and wine pairing dinner hosted by the resort, are still available as well as a limited number of general admission and non-alcoholic tickets that will be available on the day of the event.
The festival will feature unique and delicious wines provided by vendors such as Cottonwood Cellars who have been making Colorado wines for over 34 years. According to their history, “One of Colorado's oldest premium wineries, Cottonwood Cellars, is an old-world style, family-owned winery with a vineyard, Cottonwood Vineyards. The owners are Keith (the Winemaker) and Diana (Marketing) Read. The winery began operation in 1994. The first grape vines (5 acres) were planted in 1995 and has increased yearly to the current 22.5 acres. A new building was added in 1998 for barrel aging, case good storage, and the tasting room. In 2013, one additional tasting room was added with two more planned for this year.”
Another winery coming this weekend is one of the newest wineries out of Montrose. LaNoue DuBois Winery has hit the wine scene with good reviews and a few questions about their name.
“We understandably get a lot of questions about what our brand means. LaNoue DuBois (pronounced LahNew DewBwah) isn’t exactly the easiest name to say, but it has deep meaning to us. In French, it means ‘LaNoue of the Woods.’ LaNoue is our last name, and the maiden name of the matriarch in our family is Woods. All of the surrounding property around the vineyard and winery used to be part of the Woods Estate, and the vineyard is still called Woods Estate Vineyard. This dream of ours couldn’t have happened without both families, so we chose this name to be symbolic of ‘LaNoue Wines from the Woods Estate’.”
In addition to the many wines that will be available, the festival will also feature Pollinator Chocolate and other delectable treats such as homemade marshmallows in wine and chocolate flavors. Still Whiskey BBQ will be on site both days offering their wonderful array of barbecue and the Rio Grande Club and Resort will be open for lunch and snacks.
Throughout both days, there will be live entertainment featuring bands like David Nunn of Ridgway, Slopeside of Denver, and Steve Blechschmidt accompanied by Roger Bennett.
On Saturday night there will be a wine pairing dinner at the resort and entertainment from Halls Escape Room and Karaoke from Remote Control Karaoke.
There will also be several vendors offering goods like antiques, crafts, pottery, jewelry, woodworking, paintings and more.
Tickets are limited. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.southfork.org or call the South Fork Visitor Center at 719-873-5512.
