Stone Cliff Winery's Nouveau Wine Festival parade was a light-hearted, polka-punctuated affair.
A motley but lively crew of wine enthusiasts and winery employees rode on floats and wagons and in vintage vehicles through downtown, celebrating the release of the season's first harvest wine by shouting, waving and handing out coupons for free wine.
The caravan stopped at 10 locations to drop off a case of the newly released wine at each. Winery co-owner Bob Smith cheerfully hefted the cases from the delivery wagon to the bar counters, announcing that this year's nouveau wine "is as good as last year's."
That's not to say that the new wine is the winery's best -- in fact just the opposite.
"It's good for this time of year, but not that popular otherwise. It's just a hint of what the wine will taste like after it ages more," Smith explained.
You see, nouveau wines are produced as fast as possible to satisfy wine lovers craving the harvest season's first bounty. Stone Cliff's is a combination of Leon Melot and Baco Noir grapes. About
festival continues |
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| Stone Cliff Winery's 2009 Nouveau Wine Festival continues today from noon to 11 p.m. at the winery at the Port of Dubuque's Star Brewery building. |
"In France, the wineries race to get their fall harvest wines to the public first," said Mary Beth Theis, Stone Cliff's marketing director, as she handed out coupons for free glasses of wine to passers-by on the street. Those sporting berets got coupons for a bottle of the new wine.
Steve Held wore a beret. He and his wife, Rita, drove from La Crosse, Wis., for the nouveau release weekend and to visit Dubuque.
"We're big wine fans and it's a nice day, maybe one of the last ones," Held said, watching the parade pass by his street corner.
Becky Keating now lives in New Hampshire, but she was back in her hometown Friday to watch her nephew play tuba in the Americana Band, on a winery float. She planned to sample the nouveau wine at Stone Cliff winery later.
"This is great fun. It's Dubuque at its best," she said, laughing.
Nouveau Wine Festival - Nouveau Wine Festival is a French tradition where the wineries would race to be the first to deliver their new wine from the fall harvest.
