Illinois Winter Wine Festival 2014 Coming Soon
The 2014 Illinois Annual Wine Conference and Winter Wine Festival has announced a diverse agenda of speakers for this coming year’s event to be held January 30 to February 1, 2014 in Springfield, Illinois.
‘Our Illinois Wine Conference is more of an educational offering than a trade show, ‘ says Megan Pressnall of the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association (IGGVA). ‘We offer our attendees an in-depth experience and new perspectives from a stellar line up of experts.”
The Illinois Winter Wine Festival 2013
By offering simultaneous educational tracts, the Illinois Wine Conference takes a multi-pronged approach to wine learning. There are three separate presentation groupings; one for consumer wine lovers, another for winemakers and a third set of seminars focused on advanced viticulture topics, says Brad Beam, enology specialist for the state of Illinois.
‘There is so much wine information today,” Beam said. ‘Sometimes it’s good to shore up the foundations and that’s the theme of the Conference this year; ‘Build a Foundation for Sustainable Growth.'”
The flat fee for the entire Conference is $325 for non IGGVA members and $275 for non members. This fee includes:
- All 27 educational sessions featuring the perspectives of 11 experts from eight different emerging wine regions.
- The Saturday evening IGGVA Annual Banquet and Auction, which includes a four course meal paired with the Best of Show and Governor’s Cup winners from this year’s Illinois State Fair Wine Competition.
- The Winter Wine Festival on Friday evening with heavy appetizers, live music and over a dozen Illinois wineries.
- Complimentary breakfast and lunch on both Friday and Saturday.
(Accommodations at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Springfield are extra.)
The featured Speaker at the Illinois Conference this year is Domenic Carissetti who will be presenting on the topic of ‘Best Practices in Winemaking. ‘ Carisetti is a winemaker with 25 years experience, primarily in the Finger Lakes. He is also a past chairman of the American Society of Enology and Viticulture.
Also speaking on Friday will be Philippe Coquard, winemaker at Wollersheim Winery in Wisconsin, one of the Midwest’s premier wineries. Coquard’s presentation this year will be ‘Creating a Path to Success in the Midwest.”
Ed Boyce of Black Ankle Vineyards, the first estate winery in Maryland, will discuss ‘Marketing Terroir Driven Wines.”
Brad Beam will conduct a wine faults session featuring an audience participation wine tasting.
Rebecca Ritz of Bauerhaus Design, who is a contributor to Midwest Wine Press, will talk about building wine brands by coordinating label, web and print strategies.
‘If you’re looking for new perspectives and ideas that can work for your wine business, then you need to check out the 2014 Illinois Wine Conference,” Pressnall concluded.
