Wine Festival Attracts Local Vintners, Thousands Of Patrons

Russ Amrhein sports a festive hat as he pours samples of the wine he bottles atop Bent Mountain in Roanoke County.

Last Saturday the 22nd annual Smith Mountain Lake Wine Festival was a major hit once again. Organizers were hoping for at least 8-10,000 people at what is the largest fundraiser for the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Many Roanokers made the trip to SML for the wine festival, which featured several dozen state wineries. AmRhein Wine Cellars, Valhalla Vineyards, Peaks of Otter and Fincastle Vineyards represented winemakers from the Roanoke Valley.

At the Valhalla Vineyards tent, a private tasting featured a wine educator who talked about “the beer finish” one vintage had. Another one was “going to finish off with some Italian spices,” he advised.  Most folks just wandered around with their complimentary wine glass, trying the reds, whites, blends and wines made from fruits other than grapes, on a very hot and humid day. Music by several live bands and food available on site helped round out the day.

Russ Amrhein poured wines inside his booth, including several that have won recent awards. The vintner, who grows all of his own grapes on site in southwest Roanoke County, said this year’s dry summer will mean larger, more quality fruit but a lower yield, a sentiment echoed by several others at the SML Wine Festival.  He was delaying picking the red grapes, hoping the impending rain would hold off. “We want them to hang a little longer if they can,” noted Amrhein between sample pours.

The Smith Mountain Lake Chamber’s director of marketing and communications, Annette Stamus, says the Wine Festival is “very important,” as a fundraiser and a vehicle to honor major supporters inside the chamber.

Those who make the trip from Roanoke to the event (held at Lake Watch Plantation for a third time) “[represents] probably our biggest nearby crowd,” said Stamus, who worked at WDBJ-7 in the news department for almost three decades.

People came in from as far away as Hawaii and Florida, timing visits to see friends with the wine festival, where 27 Virginia wineries and 85 other vendors were represented. 2010 festival T-shirts sported the tagline “Closer than you think,” an invitation to those non-lake residents who haven’t traveled to the vacation and retirement mecca recently.

“There are people in Roanoke that don’t know Smith Mountain Lake is here…and don’t realize what a gem it is having this in our back yard. It’s getting bigger all the time,” said Stamus.

Events manager Jim Shauberger said the Smith Mountain Lake Wine Festival helps fund the Closer than You Think campaign that the Chamber promotes all over the state. “It’s huge, our primary source of funds. The economic impact is awesome.”

Shops and restaurants in the area reap big benefits from the wine festival; Shauberger pegged the economic impact at “millions of dollars” annually. The thousands on hand last weekend seemed to be more concerned with wine tasting and socializing, unaware perhaps that they were helping to fund a major campaign.

By Gene Marrano
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