June is shaping up to be a fine month for enjoying the efforts of local winemakers and musicians alike. With no less than four big music and wine events planned, you can choose your wine festival by musical genre (Bluegrass, Blues, Big Band or Jazz) or by location within the Sooner State.
The first two weekends in June offer a Jazz festival at The Grape Ranch, Bluegrass at Cabin Creek Winery, one of Oklahoma's largest outdoor wine events The Drumright WineFest and the annual Oklahoma Art & Wine Festival in Shawnee.
What's an Oklahoma wine lover to do? Well, what we do is try and choose one of the events that mutliple wineries will be pouring at. For us, that means either the Drumright event or the Shawnee event.
The 3rd Annual Drumright WineFest
Last year's Drumright WineFest gets my vote for the Best Wine Event of the Season. You can't beat tasting wine samples from five different Oklahoma wineries head-to-head. Also, the free trolley rides through the historic boomtown of Drumright concluding with the Tidal School vineyards & winery were both interesting and educational. However, I must admit it was the awesome blues, jazz, and bluegrass music of Tulsa’s Mark Bruner and Shelby Eicher that knocked my socks off!
Drumright Wine Fest
This year's Third Annual Wine Fest will feature even more Oklahoma Wineries including: Tidal School Winery and Vineyards of Drumright, Moonfeathers Winery of Guthrie, Bear Creek Winery of Pawnee (new addition), Tres Suenos of Luther, StableRidge Winery of Stroud, Nuyaka Creek Winery of Nuyaka, and Natura Vineyards & Winery of Natura.
The entertainment for the Drumright Wine Fest is Amanda Cunningham, a Red Dirt, folksy mix of music. Mark Bruner and Shelby Eicher, a Tulsa based acoustic blues duo and Jimmy Markham Band, the 2004 Blues Band of the year.
The 3rd Annual Oklahoma Art & Wine Festival
The 3rd Annual Oklahoma Art & Wine Festival will be held in Shawnee, Oklahoma on the blocks north of Main on historic Bell Street from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. In addition to great music and wine tasting, more than thirty artists from throughout the state will also be competing in a juried art show.
Numerous wineries from across Oklahoma will be available for wine tastings as well as offering their products for sale. Wineries scheduled to participate in the Festival are Grape Ranch, Okemah; Sparks Vineyard and Winery, Sparks; Plainview Winery, Lahoma; Stonebluff Winery, Haskell; Tres Suenos, Luther; Moonfeathers, Guthrie; and StableRidge Winery of Stroud.
I worked at this wine event last year, pouring for Nuyaka Creek Winery. I'll always remember it as 'The Air Conditioned WineFest'. Oklahoma summers tend to be mercilessly host and humid. The climate controlled, indoor, wine tasting area at the Shawnee event not only allowed more comfortable evaluation of the local wines...it also allowed a Chocolate Fountain.
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