Annual wine festivals celebrate viticulture and usually occur after the harvest of the grapes which, in the northern hemisphere, generally falls at the end of September and runs until well into October or later. They are common in most wine regions around the world and are to be considered in the tradition of other harvest festivals.
The Egyptian god Osiris was dedicated to wine, but the oldest historically documented wine festivals can be traced back to the Greek celebrations for their wine god Dionysos. The typical ingredients of a wine festival include wine drinking, grape pressing, regional foods, music and, in many areas, religious ritual.
In culture
The grape, and the extraction of its juice to produce wine, is more than a flavorsome food or drink. Both grapes and wine have immense cultural significance in many cultures, and often religious significance too.
Competitions
Oregon Wine Competition
Concours Mondial de Bruxelles
International Wine and Spirit Competition
Varsity blind wine tasting match
Festivals
Australian festivals
Caxton Street Seafood and Wine Festival
Grampians Grape Escape
Kings Cross Food and Wine Festival
Melbourne Food and Wine Festival
Brazilian festivals
Festa do Vinho (Santa Catarina) Festa do Vinho de Andradas
Canadian festivals
Cowichan Wine and Culinary Festival, British Columbia
Niagara Wine Festival, St. Catharines, Ontario
German festivals
Baden
Wine festival calendar
Hessische Bergstraße
Winzerfest, Groß-Umstadt
Mosel
Moselfest, Winningen
Weinfest der Mittelmosel, Bernkastel-Kues
Palatinate
Burg- und Weinfest, Wachenheim
Deidesheimer Weinkerwe, Deidesheim
Deutsches Weinlesefest, Neustadt
Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt, Bad Dürkheim
Eselshautfest, Mußbach
Fest des Federweißen, Landau
Kändelgassenfest, Großkarlbach
Mandelblütenfest, Gimmeldingen
Stadtmauerfest, Freinsheim
Rheingau
Rheingauer Weinwoche, Wiesbaden
Rheinhessen
Weinmarkt Mainz, Mainz
Backfischfest, Worms
Saxony
Herbst- und Weinfest, Radebeul
Württemberg
Fellbacher Herbst, Fellbach
Weindorf, Stuttgart
French festivals
Beaujolais Nouveau
Bordeaux Wine Festival, Bordeaux, France
la paulee de mersault, Burgundy, France
Hungarian festivals
Badacsony Wine Weeks, Badacsonytomaj
Balatonboglár Grape Harvest Days, Balatonboglár
Balatonfüred Wine Weeks, Balatonfüred
BorZsongás, wine festival of Villány
Budapest International Wine Festival, Budapest - the largest Hungarian wine festival (about 50,000 people per festival) Budavári Borfesztivál, Budapest Eger Grape Harvest Festival, Eger Eger Star Wine Festival (Egri Csillag Borfesztivál), Eger Etyek Cellar Festival, Etyek Gourmet Festival, Budapest Grape Harvest Festival of Tokaj-Hegyalja, Tokaj Győr Wine Days, Győr Pannonhalma Wine Region Cellar Festival, Pannonhalma Rosé Riesling and Jazz Days, Veszprém Sopron Grape Harvest Days, Sopron Szekszárd Grape Harvest Festival, Szekszárd Tihany Grape Harvest Days, Tihany Tokaj Wine Festival, Tokaj Villány Grape Harvest Festival, Villány VinAgora, Budapest Wine Festival of Balaton's wines, Budapest