Sunday, May 17, 2015

Drenched Wine Festival


The Virginia Wine and Craft Festival is held every May in Front Royal, a mountain town about 50 miles west of Washington, DC. I've been to this festival year after year since 1991. I missed the last two, in 2013 and 2014, due to family obligations in Massachusetts but I was determined to make it to the 2015 festival. As I arrived I saw ominous grey clouds moving in but went on wine-tasting as I usually do. In all those years of wine festing it has never rained on my visit. Well, I was wrong this time. In between wine sips the sky opened up with a violent deluge with high winds and thunder and lightning. The exhibitors either folded their awnings and fled or held on frantically to keep them from blowing away. I huddled under an awning which gave little or no protection from the torrents and despite having an umbrella I was soaked. Even so, people were buying and drinking wine in the rain! Many vendors must have taken some losses though. I was able to buy a very wet bottle of Mattaponi Vineyards Chambourcin red which I loaded into my soaked backpack.

Black technical pen ink on sketchbook page, about 4 1/2" x 6", May 17, 2015.

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