WineInk: Snowmass wine in the September sun

“Well, it’s one of the last times each year that I get to see my friends in their shirtsleeves,” laughed the young lady pouring wine on a warm and sunny afternoon at a previous Snowmass Wine Festival. She was wearing a sundress that would get a thumbs-up from The Aspen Times Luxe-List fashion columnist Sari Tuschman.

The comment was a nod to the beautiful changing of the seasons as fall takes over and summer closes, that helps make the annual September Snowmass Wine Festival such a beloved event for locals and visitors alike. For wine lovers, the Snowmass gathering is a highlight of the year, coming after Labor Day weekend when time seems to slow down a bit. While the 2025 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen kicks off the summer season each June, built on the back of bacchanalia, the Snowmass Wine Festival provides a much more casual, laid-back tasting experience.

The festival returns for its 23rd year next Friday and Saturday, Sept. 12 and 13, as one of the best weekends of the Snowmass season. This also coincides with the 50th anniversary of another Snowmass tradition, the Snowmass Balloon Festival.

More than just a time to imbibe and catch up with friends, the Snowmass Wine Festival is one of the most significant fund-raising events of the year for the Snowmass Rotary Club. The Rotary has hosted the event for over two decades, as a way not to just bring the community together for a fine time with wine, but also to raise funds for organizations that are doing good. All the funds raised through the festival are allocated to nonprofit organizations across the Roaring Fork Valley.

On Aug. 27, at the Aspen Glen Golf Club, it was announced that the proceeds from the festival helped fund more than $70,000 in grants made this year by the Snowmass Rotary Club. The donations were made to 28 nonprofit organizations throughout the valley that benefit each year from the generosity of the Snowmass Rotary and the work of their members who volunteer their time to help make the Snowmass Wine Festival such a success.

In a release this past week, Sherri Goodwin, the Rotary Club’s community grants chair, noted, “Our partnership with our grant recipients involves each providing volunteers to help manage this event. Their dedication to offering their help on that day allows the club to return the dollars earned back to the community. We appreciate the win-win situation for all involved.”

That leaves the Saturday, Sept. 13, Grand Tasting as the go-to event. It will be time to head outdoors, hopefully in shirtsleeves and summer dresses, into the sunshine for the main event that will feature the traditional walk–around Grand Tasting at the Snowmass Town Park. The tasting, which will begin at 1:30 p.m. and continues until 5 p.m., will feature more than 300 wines spread out over 39 tables and a plethora of craft spirits in the tasting tents set up throughout the park.

As always, the wines are the stars of the event, and for more than 20 years, they have been curated through the exceptional palate of Barbara Bakios-Wickes, owner of Sundance Liquor and Gifts in the Snowmass Center, who annually ups the game by selecting wines of substance for guests of the event to taste. This year, there is an outstanding representation of wines from the Napa Valley.

“I’m really excited to welcome Chateau Montelena as a newcomer to the Festival,” Bakios-Wickes said. Indeed, one of the most iconic names in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, this is an opportunity to taste the elegance of the wines in a casual setting among friends. “I also am enjoying the lovely, layered wines from Gemstone Vineyard in Yountville.” They, too, will be in attendance.

For the first time this year, the Snowmass Wine Festival will be awarding a “Best of Show” award using QR code technology.

“There will be a code on each table, and people can take their phones out and take a photo of the bottle and vote using the QR,” Bakios-Wickes said. “People can participate, and having the pictures on their phones may encourage them to come into a wine shop and buy the wines they liked.”

If you love a wine from the tasting, you can usually find it at Sundance Liquor and Gifts.

“If we don’t have it, we can order it, and we usually discount the wines in the Festival,” she noted, who loves introducing new wines to customers.

Tickets to the Grand Tasting are  going fast and are available online at snowmasswinefestival.com. A day pass is $135 when purchased in advance but will rise to $150 at the gate if passes are still available. And remember, when you buy tickets for the Snowmass Wine Festival, 100% of every dollar benefits local non-profit organizations across the Roaring Fork Valley and charitable organizations worldwide.

Enjoy the show.