Austin Wine Festival - Day 1

What a day! I went to day 1 of the Austin Wine Festival with high hopes - 30+ wineries from all over Texas bringing their best wines all to one spot - I was so excited! For $25 you get a wine glass and 10 tasting tickets, with each additional one for $1. Immediately I was overwhelmed, I found out each booth could bring 4 wines, so around 120 total, and how could I choose only 10-20? Dominique and I walked around for a bit and finally started tasting. The first thing I tried was a Haak white port which was delicious! Also of interest were the fruit wines. The blackberry was good, raspberry was super weird and got worse the more sips I took. There were lots of red wines, many of which tasted sour but there were also some winners!

Not 45 minutes after I got there it started POURING. We both figured it should pass in a few minutes, but it kept getting worse. The entire group huddled under the wine booth overhangs, and waited as the lightning crackled close by. It was miserable. Nobody knew what to do for about 15 minutes, as we couldnt get to our cars, and were basically stuck where we were. We were stuck at the Messina Hof booth, which was great because the wine there was really good - we tried the pinot noir, pinot grigio, riesling, and gewurztraminer. Then the mood started to lighten as the shock wore off, and everyone started ordering wine by the glass to pass the time. Finally around 6 it started to lighten up and we began to move again and finish out our 10 tastings. Just as we finished, vendors started telling us to "Go home! More rain is coming!". RIDICULOUS - we waited all that time just to have to go home anyway. 

I really wish they offered a rain check, as the first day was delicious, yet not worth the $25 I paid. Hopefully day 2 will be better!