Last week I attended a blind tasting of Colorado wines, which can only mean one thing: it's time for Wine Fest! The "Colorado Mountain Winefest" as it is officially known will be held this year September 17-20. The festival always coincides with grape harvest, the busiest time of year for wineries, but it's also when the Grand Valley enjoys some of its best weather. So the winemakers, cellar rats, tasting room wenches, vineyard managers, grape pickers, and chateau lords all suck it up and work a little harder to get the harvest in and serve wine to upwards of 6000 people over the weekend.

The big event is the Festival in the Park held at Riverbend Park in Palisade on Saturday the 19th. Virtually every winery in Colorado will be there, pouring samples of their product. There will also be food vendors, arts, crafts, and live music. Other events over the weekend include winemaker dinners, seminars, a golf outing, fly fishing, and bicycle tours of the vineyards.

I went to the blind tasting with Dan Kirby, the chair of the Culinary Arts Department at Western Colorado Community College. We were asked to taste 58 wines for inclusion in the First Class Pass pavilion at the Festival in the Park. If you are coming to Wine Fest I highly recommend you go First Class. Purchase of the First Class Pass includes close-in parking, concierge service, special seating at the concert stage, and entrance to the Pavilion where our culinary students prepare food all day long and the best wines of the festival are available for tasting without the long lines that sometimes form. There is also plenty of seating at dining tables, an otherwise rarity in the park.

The blind tasting was set up at a hotel property in Palisade. Wines were grouped by varietal on tables set around the perimeter of the meeting room, numbered, labels hidden from view by brown paper bags. After the blind tasting we received a list revealing the contents of the anonymous brown bags. Here are some wines that stood out  during the tasting:

• Whitewater Hill 2007 Shiraz spicy and fruity with great depth of flavor, pair with lamb
• Bookcliff 2008 Temperanillo just plain delicious
• Garfield Estates 2008 Vo Viogner crisp with tropical fruit flavors
  
• Carlson 2008 Laughing Cat Riesling floral with mineral notes and a hint of spicy mustard in the finish

On my way home I picked up a bottle of the Laughing Cat Riesling at the liquor store and paired it with grilled bratwurst on buttered buns with sauerkraut and sweet hot mustard. Yum!