Beyond the bottle: Pioneer Valley Wine Festival to feature wine tastings and more

The Pioneer Valley Wine Festival will return for its sixth year at Auction Acres in Brimfield on Saturday, June 7, and Sunday, June 8, from noon to 6 p.m.

The festival will include wine, beer, mead, cider, and spirits from local and regional vineyards, breweries, and other spirits producers. Per the norm for a wine festival, guests will be able to purchase a tasting passport that lets them try samples from nearly two dozen vendors.

This year, though, there are a number of new and expanded offerings, many of which will appeal to foodies, including panels with brewmasters, vintners and bartenders. The chef panel will feature, among others, Brynn Gibson, the youngest Black Jacket finalist on the TV show “Hell’s Kitchen,” starring Gordon Ramsay; and Jared Forman, owner of the Worcester restaurant Deadhorse Hill and former competitor on the show “Beat Bobby Flay.” On-site vendors will provide live food and beverage demonstrations, and the festival will have local food trucks. Local farmers (and craft artisans) will sell their produce and products (cheese, maple syrup, etc.) as well.

Beyond food and beverage programming, the festival will also feature a “Sip & Stroll Artwalk” featuring art displays and live art from Piya Samant, a Boston-based painter, and oil painter Tess Barbato; music from DJ Chino, DJ Cortes, and DJ Shmizzy, as well as The Sensi Allstars Band; yoga and sound healing; axe throwing; and sip and paint workshops.

Mineral Hills Winery, a winery in Florence that has taken part in Pioneer Valley Wine Festival since its inception, will be bringing five wines – Le Tre Sorelle (“wonderful rich flavors of cherry & black currant with some toasty and vanilla characteristics”); Seyval Blanc (“citrus fruit aromas and a flavor that presents hints of grapefruit and lemon”); Cayuga White (“light fruity aromas with sweet melon and tropical fruit flavors, along with a hint of peach”); Noho Blush (“a floral/raspberry aroma to start, with flavors that hint of citric fruits and raspberries”), and another, which is still to be determined, but will likely be Fantasma Bianco (“a wonderful blend of pear and apple with a hint of spice”).

Anna Pearlman, owner of Mineral Hills Winery, said that the selection represents a range of her business’s most popular wines – wines that people have tried elsewhere and expect to be available at a big event like this. She hopes that the festival will introduce a wider range of people to her products, thus inspiring them to visit the vineyard – in any case, she said, “We have lots more to offer than what we’re bringing.”

Cameron’s Winery and Cidery, a Northfield establishment run by Leslie and Paul Cameron, who also own a brewery and catering company, is planning to bring an even bigger bevy of bottles – at least 14, in fact. They won’t make their exact selection until the day of the festival, but it’ll represent “a little bit of everything,” Leslie said, including red wines, white wines, citrus wines, and chocolate wines, among others. (“We just make wine all the time. We have nothing better to do,” she joked.)

The Camerons, like Pearlman, are also festival veterans who’ve been taking part in it since before the pandemic. Leslie said one of the couple’s favorite things about it is the guests.

“It’s a blast,” she said. “You get to meet all kinds of people. Some people we know, but we make new friends, and it’s really cool. I think that’s our favorite thing, is all the people.”

General admission tickets – which do not include tastings – are $15. Tasting passports are $50. VIP tickets are $100 and include gift bags and meet and greet access with the celebrity guests. Seniors, emergency personnel, and children under 15 (when accompanied by a parent or guardian) receive free admission, though not a free tasting passport.

For all other admission options or to purchase tickets, visit pioneervalleywinefestival.simpletix.com.

Carolyn Brown can be reached at cbrown@gazettenet.com.