The hallmark culmination of the Crested Butte Wine & Food Festival is the impressive Grand Tasting. Sip, swirl and saunter your way through over 500 wines from over 30 distributors and wineries, including the revolutionary Scholium Project (Los Angeles). With this remarkable selection, you are sure to discover a new favorite or boutique vintage to suit your particular palate. If you taste a wine you love, skip the hassle of trying to find the winery later with on-site ordering of your favorites through Mountain Spirits Liquors.
What’s included in your pass to the Grand Tasting:
- A Riedel wine glass to sample an unlimited number of wines (and keep for yourself!) Generously donated by Robert and Noel McCarter
- Complimentary appetizers from incredible local restaurants
- Live music from the Crested Butte Music Festival
- The chance to win rare at large-format bottles at the Wine Auction (details below)
- Your photo taken at the Grand Tasting Photo Booth (courtesy CB Photo Booth)
Wineries range from family operations concocting hand-crafted artisan wines in small batches, to companies distributing over 32 million cases of wine throughout the world. The main focus, however, is on the exceptional and premium wines (many of them award-winning) of the day.
Featured wineries range from Sonoma and Napa Valley in California, to Oregon, Washington, and even Littleton. There will be imports from Chile, Italy and Australia. Some have produced wine for over 30 years. Others are on oenophiles’ “up and coming” list.
We are also thrilled to announce a special appearance by Winemaker Abe Schoener of the Scholium Project (Los Angeles, CA)! Abe has been called a “cult hero” and a “fearless, risk-loving winemaker” by Robert Draper of the New York Times Magazine. Schoener garnered praise and a global following for his complex, unorthodox wines, at the center of which is his unyielding drive to experiment with the outer boundaries of winemaking.
Wine Auction:
Win large format, small batch and rare bottles from the unique Wine Auction to add to your collection.
Wine Auction items include:
- A 2 night stay at Moshin Vineyards
- Timbre 2014 Pinot Noir 3 Bottle Set Hand Signed by Josh Klapper
- Nickel & Nickel 2015 3 Bottle Set
- 1 magnum bottle 2016 Belle Glos Las Alturas Pinot Noir
- 2013 Relic Artefact Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
- 1 magnum each of Hahn Family Wines Smith & Hook Cabernet and Hahn Red Blend
*VIP early entry into the Grand Tasting is a prized inclusion to the Patron, Connoisseur and Tasting Passes.