More Wine Please..........Houston Wine Fest 2016
Background
Everyone that knows me understands my love affair with wine. We see each other almost every night. And I find myself sad on days when I don’t have time for him. Because he always makes time for me. My favorites are full bodied and red, but I rarely discriminate. In the words of A Tribe Called Quest, I like 'em brown, yellow, Puerto Rican or Haitian colored. It really doesn’t matter. My love of wine runs deep and it will never grow old or disappear. So I’m sure you can imagine how excited I was about attending the annual Houston Wine Festival. This year marked the 6th annual installment of this event, and the stars aligned with my typically busy fall travel schedule, so I was finally able to attend.
Atmosphere
The event was held at The Water Works, an outdoor entertainment venue located on Sabine Street at Buffalo Bayou Park. This is a spectacular outdoor space that I never knew existed. That’s because it opened earlier year, and its already been heavily booked for private events. This site was developed in partnership with the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, which is a nonprofit organization created to develop improvements to the city’s greenway system. So basically, all of the renovations that have been done to the Buffalo Bayou are a direct result of the work done by this organization. They’ve greatly improved the running trails, installed bridges, and pavilions that Houston residents have been enjoying for the past several years. The Water Works project is just the latest of improvements by this organization. They reclaimed an old 4 acre abandoned City of Houston water site and created a Buffalo Bayou Park entry point that includes an entertainment pavilion, a huge lawn space and killer downtown skyline views. This is one of those spaces that makes me proud to be Houston born and raised. It’s a great space, developed by great people for the great people in our community. It’s well done. In short, the venue’s location was perfect. Unfortunately, that’s the only thing perfect about this event. Well……..that and my outfit. :-)
Photo by Shelby Hodge
The Beginning
The event started at 3:00 pm and was scheduled to go until 10:00 pm. We arrived around 3:45 and the lines were down the street. Already…………not a good sign. There were hundreds of people waiting in line. I’m thinking, what in God’s name is taking them so long to check people in. Anyway, we find a lot to park and we walk to the line. Curious as to what is taking so long, I walk up to the front to check things out. I see there is approximately ONE line with 2 people taking tickets. Really people? This event was sold out. They sold, what I am assume, a couple thousand tickets and they had one admission line. Okay. I’m going to have to pull out my inner patience energy, because I am determined not to let this set back ruin an event I had looked so forward to.
A view of the single check in line that extended down Sabine Street
Well, the inner fat girl in me decided to partake in a snack from one of the two food trucks that was located in the same lot. I mean, we were waiting anyway, so why not! Truck on the Bayou, a Cajun food truck, had a variety of Cajun options from fried catfish to beignets. I opted for the beignets and in short, they were amazing. No complaints there, and this was the perfect coating that my stomach needed in order to prep for its future wine consumption.
Beignets from the Truck on the Bayou food truck
So after about a 45 minute wait, we are finally checked in. About time! We grab our wristbands and commemorative wine glasses (that doubled as our tasting glass) and we proceeded up the stairs to the open air event. In short, the venue was perfect. It was a perfect 80 degree day, and we were basically on top of a hill, so the breeze was nice. Not to mention, we had a perfect view of the Houston downtown skyline. There were tons of people on the plaza, but it wasn’t overcrowded, because the space was so large.
My Attire
This post wouldn't be complete without a detailed description of the frugal find that I wore for the afternoon festivities. I opted for a deep apricot colored maxi dress from Forever 21 ($29.90). I paired it with black lace up espadrilles from Zara and accessorized it with a choker necklace and rings from Forever 21 (both $6.40), and arm candy by your truly, BSGO Jewelry.
The Wine
Okay back to the wine. The event was set up in tent booths. Each booth featured wine made in a specific country. So I thought. Our first stop was France. The line was long. We waited about 25 minutes to get to the front. Finally, we made it to the promise land. She pours a couple of drops and then proceeds to the next person. Is she serious? That wasn't a pour. That wasn't enough to drown a mosquito. I’m also not quite sure if I had a cab or a red blend. They were rushing people out of line, so I didn’t get the wine details. I quickly learned that these were just paid servers and they had no real knowledge of the wine they were serving. They also had a sign on each booth that specified that you were to drink one sample at a time. So let me get this straight. They want patrons to wait in line a half an hour and then not sample all of the wines they have available? Yeah, sorry. That doesn’t work for me. Our strategy will be better in the next country. I left highly disappointed with the first booth stop.
Wines from France.... (maybe)
Okay, so on to the next. We get into our next massive line……..New Zealand. We wait about 15 minutes and then we are told that New Zealand was completely out of wine. What? I check the time on my phone. It’s 4:45 pm. This shindig started at 3:00 and goes until 10:00, and booths are already out of wine. Needless to say, I wasn't happy. I stared into oblivion, perplexed by this entire situation. You can't wine fest without the damn wine.
Perplexed......
After the New Zealand debacle, we decided to get in the South African line. We wait about another 20 minutes and they have wine. Yes!! I had a nice Cabernet and the pour was right, but the highlight was the Riesling, called Head Over Heels. It was really nice. Rieslings are typically sweet, which is not usually my preference. However, this one wasn’t too sweet. It had more of a fruity flavor, which I prefer. The only issue I had with this booth is that (after further research) I learned that this wine wasn’t sourced from South Africa at all, but Michigan. Le Sigh. I don’t even know what to say. Why it was being served in a South African booth, no clue. Oh well...on to the next.
We moved on to another “country”, and after a 25 minute wait, we were informed that they were out of wine. At this point, I’m way beyond annoyed. My glass is empty! What is wrong with this picture?
Holding my empty glass..
Final Thoughts
Okay. There is no need to go on because you get the picture. As I mentioned earlier, this was the 6th annual Houston Wine Festival. After doing research on the history of this event, I’ve learned that other than the first couple of years, this event has traditionally been a hot mess. The event was advertised as being under “new management” but there didn’t seem to be much improvement over the previous years. Let’s start with the price tag. General admission tickets were $50 plus an admin fee. So most people paid roughly $55 a ticket, unless you opted for VIP, which I’m sure was in the hundred dollar range. So in other words, those tickets weren’t cheap. It is unfortunate that a massive metropolitan city (the 4th largest city in the US) can’t put together a decent wine event. I don’t understand it. As I mentioned several times earlier, the venue was perfect. It provided the perfect backdrop for this kind of event and the weather was definitely cooperative. You were able to bring lawn chairs to chill on the lawn, but the lawn went vastly unused because folks were always in line for fear that they would run out of wine. If the wine shortage hadn't been an issue, the lines wouldn't have been so long, because more patrons would have paced themselves and not felt so rushed. To be fair, they did show up with a truck full of wine around 6 pm. However, by then, a lot of patrons had left. We just deserved better. I really wouldn't think that putting together a wine event would be that complicated. First tip, DON'T RUN OUT OF WINE. It's simple math. That would solve 80% of the issues with this event. To sum up my entire experience, I think the following questions sum up the sentiments of most people who attended:
Ten Questions That Need Answers
1) Why would you only have approximately ONE line set up to check people in with tickets to this event when you sold thousands of tickets?
2) How do you run out of wine glasses when you pre-sold all of the tickets to this event? (Yes, they ran out of the commemorative glasses. They ran to the store to buy generic ones.)
3) Why were there only TWO foods trucks set up outside of the event to serve thousands of patrons when they were banned from bringing food to this event?
4) Why were the only two food trucks selling basically the same thing (Cajun food)? What if someone doesn’t eat Cajun food? How will they soak up all of that wine?
5) Why were there no taco trucks at this event? This is freaking Texas. Everyone eats tacos. EVERYONE!
6) How do you run out of wine not even two hours into a 7 hour event?
7) Why weren’t we allowed to bring wine if we weren’t going to be allowed to purchase bottles from vendors, as advertised?
8) Why weren’t servers knowledgeable about the wines they were pouring?
9) Why didn’t you provide literature on how to buy the wine, since you weren’t selling bottles?
10) Again, how do you run out of wine at a wine festival?
All in all, we managed to have a good time, because wine…….and my friends and I always manage to make the best out of most situations. Fortunately for Houston Wine Fest, the best part of any festival, are the memories you make with your friends. However, I will not be attending this festival again. I wouldn't recommend it. Avoid this like the plague, unless someone gets you in for free.
Here are more pictures from this event.
My friend Gloria and I
My baby sister Tori and I
On the lawn with the Houston skyline in the background
Despite the rough start, we ended the night on a high note
SSJ