North Market Ohio Wine Festival

Although this event seems to have good reviews from years past, as someone who went in 2017, what I can tell you is DO NOT GO!! I went last night with friends and we each paid $27 for our admission. With admission, you get ten tickets and a free glass. One would assume that one ticket=one tasting. WRONG! I had never been to this event before, so I walked up with my friend to a vendor and asked for their Cab. He poured us a one ounce sample (all samples are only one ounce!!!). And then said "that'll be five tickets." FIVE TICKETS?! My friend and I were in disbelief! I begrudgingly have him five tickets but in hindsight wish I would have told him to pour the wine out because I didn't want to waste five tickets on one ounce of wine. As we went to other booths, we quickly found out that almost every one ounce tasting was 2-3 tickets. Any that were 1 ticket all tasted like grape juice. All told, I spent $27 on three ounces (OUNCES....not glasses...OUNCES) of wine. Another big thing that was super annoying is that when we tried to complain to the vendors, all of them said "it's not us. Sorry...nothing we can do." They all acted like they had their hands tied and couldn't give you a taste for free. Once I ran out of tickets, I didn't want to buy more because we were getting ready to leave (you can buy extra tickets for 50 cents each), I asked a vendor if she'd give me a tasting for cash and she said no. All vendors had horrible customer service. They wouldn't nudge at all! After I used my tickets I wanted to buy a bottle for my boyfriend and even when I told them I was looking to buy a bottle, none of them would give me even just a small sip tasting to see if I'd even like it. What in the world kind of customer service is that when you know someone is trying to buy a bottle from you?! Definitely would never recommend this event to anyone. I heard it was really fun in the past, but it's a horrible waste of time and money. I will say though that we went from 6-9 on Friday night. There is a chance (at least I'm hoping) that they get more generous with the pours and customer service as the evening/weekend ends. Save your money and go to Giant Eagle, Whole Foods, or Wine on High! So disappointed in the North Market for putting on this event so incredibly poorly.

Soooo much fun!!! As my first year in Ohio, this was a great experience for me!! Not being familiar with any of the local wineries, this was a great way to introduce me to them and find out which ones I want to actually go visit. I LOVE wine... remember, you need several servings of fruit a day... grapes are a fruit... wine is made from grapes!!! Therefore, wine is good for you!!! As for the location at the North Market... what a great combination!! After tasting 20+ wines, one does need a bit of a snack to go with all those grapes... Can't wait to go again next year!! Thanks Columbus for making moving here so much fun!!

I was pretty excited when I realized the wine festival was happening the weekend I had planned a trip to Columbus. I love wine and I love the North Market so this seemed like the best combo possible, right? Not so much. There was just now enough room between stands to stand, socialize, drink wine, and then move on. Had the event been held in the massive parking lot owned by the North Market, I easily would've given it 5 stars. Honestly the wine and merchants there were AWESOME but you just couldn't enjoy anything you were drinking unless you totally left the vendor areas between every single sample. Perks that totally made it worth going:1) Great vendors-- I especially loved the Wisconsin hard cider booth. Bangin' sangria! And honestly you can never go wrong with Ohio wines!2) There was a free photobooth sponsored by Crave3) Entry came with a $5 coupon for the North Market...which basically gives you an excuse to get Jeni's ice cream. And any excuse to get Jeni's is a great excuse.All in all, yes if I was ever in Columbus the weekend of the wine fest, I'd go again. But the wine fest sponsored by Giant Eagle in Cleveland is much better.

I attended the Festival for the first time this year. While I'm not a big wine afficionado, I thought what better than to go broaden my wine palate at the North Market Wine Festival (yes, wine festival...there is no food other than a few demonstrations and what North Market has to offer). I went on Friday for the preview night. The weather couldn't have been better, and while it was very crowded, after a few samples I forgot about everybody else around me! Most samples were 2 tickets, while others were 4. It was not too difficult to find several new wines that I now love- and even better, they're all made in Ohio!Of course, I had to go back the next day to sample a few more wines. While it was hotter than hell, that didn't stop anybody from going. It was nice to take a short break and sit under the food demonstration tent...and sampling the yummy dishes didn't hurt either after drinking all that wine.I'm already looking forward to going again next year!

Thanks to Yelp and Christina C., I won a pair of tickets to this event that I've passed by for the past three years straight. What a great experience! I had so much fun that I'll probably be back again next year!All the wineries are lined up along the north side of the market right on Spruce next to Bar Louie's patio. If you know your wines, there is plenty of literature for you to be most efficient at your tasting. If you don't have the first clue about wine except that it tastes good, the reps and volunteers at the booths are more than happy to steer you towards something you'd like.My tasting partner and I threw caution to the wind and figured we'd be able to tackle a one ounce pour (or two) at each winery within 90 mins and be on our merry way. Not quite. Umm, not even close. For a leisurely tasting of at least one wine per booth with great conversation, I'd budget about 2.5 hours. For a surgical strike, an hour might be enough. Each one ounce pour was anywhere from two to four tasting tickets, and a two ounce pour could run up to 8 tickets. At 50cents a ticket, twenty tickets was plenty for myself. Pro-tip: bring a friend, that way you can maximize the number of wines you taste by sharing a pour.Since it was a steamy evening, we drank mostly white wines. There were some interesting raspberry wines (both dry and sweet), a mead or two (honey wine), and plenty of rieslings, gewurztraminers, and chardonnays. With my semi-professional palate on vacation, it seemed these are the types of varietals that Lake Erie is known for. Having prepared for the worst (and there were definitely some stinkers), I was very pleasantly surprised at how well balanced the standout gewurtzs and rieslings were. Well developed summer fruit and honeyed aromas with a nice clean acidic finish. If I wasn't so concerned about tasting everything before the 10pm cut off, I would have liked to bring home a case or two!Admission: The preview party happens on the festival's Friday night from 7-10pm. Tickets are $20 but you can pick up discount coupons from the sponsors around town. For example, PNC was this year's title sponsor and they had $5 off coupons at their branches. Friday night tickets included a $5 North Market gift certificate, a souvenir wine glass, AND 10 tasting tickets. Saturday and Sunday admission is $5 and only includes the wine glass. Preview party is the way to go!

I may be late with this years review but I get here! This year was another good year for sipping the wines and helping out for a hot minute at the Yelp booth. Those cork glass charms were too ka-yute!Again a great selection of wines and as usual I fell in love with another nummy sparkling one, the Peach Mist from The Winery at Versailles. It was so good I just gave up trying any of the others and used the rest of my tickets here. I even bought a bottle to bring home. I love the summer festivals here but this one is way up there on my list of faves.

This was a great chance to try local vino at the Preview Party. With your $20 entrance fee, you received a commemorative glass, a $5 certificate to the North Market, and string of tickets which, depending on the wine you chose got you about 6-8 tastings. I really liked that you could purchase more tickets to keep rolling. I have to admit, it was pretty claustrophobic at times and you couldn't tell at some tents who was in line and who was just mingling. I bought one of the souvenir t-shirts--an image of Ohio made out of corks--too cool! Will definitely be back next year!

I've attended the North Market Food & wine Festival twice now. I went several years ago, when it was still being held on the east side of the building by the parking lot. I remember it being VERY hot and VERY crowded.When I attended the preview party this year, I was pleased to see the booths had been relocated onto the street north of the building. However, this didn't seem to alleviate the issues with crowding. As the night wore on, it got more and more difficult to move through the crowd.Nearly every drinking festival I've been to has the same problem. People wait in line to get their drinks, then they kind of mill around right in front of the booth rather than moving off to the side so that other people can be served. This isn't the fault of North Market though!I was a little surprised to find that the "food" portion of the festival was simply whichever normal restaurants were open in the North Market. While I love a lot of the food there, I was really hoping for some additional features. It was great tasting and learning about a lot of the Ohio wines, but my tickets went quickly, especially when one of the vendors charged me 3 tickets for a pour rather than the standard 2. (I can't quite figure out why almost all of the pours were 2 tickets and the glasses were 4. Why not just make it 1 and 2, respectively?)If you're dying to try many of the local wineries in Ohio, this is a great event for you. However, if you're hoping to learn from the vendors and explore new tastes, the bustle may make this a little difficult.

I'm the first to admit that I'm not much of a drinker and definitely not a wine connoisseur. However, I had a great time at the Wine Festival, and sampled a range of interesting alcoholic and even a few non-alcoholic beverages which I normally would have never had a chance to try. As someone who isn't much of a traditional grape wine drinker, I was thrilled to be able to sample various peach, apple, and pomegranate wines along with ciders, meads, and a tamarind horchata. I can't say I loved everything I tried, but I enjoyed having the opportunity to sample such a variety.The event itself was held outside with tented booths on the street next to the market, which given the perfect weather, worked out beautifully. It was very tight in that little area, though, which made navigating and seeing the booths rather tricky, especially around the entrance/exit and popular booths where the amorphous lines and knots of people sampling their drinks created road blocks. Still, even with my agoraphobic tendencies, I had a good time. Most of the folks working the booths were very friendly and helpful, happy to make suggestions, and I enjoyed a lot of what I sampled. Personal favorites included the Winery at Versailles' Peach Mist and Meijer's Tamarind Horchata. Anyway, I wouldn't mind going again if my friends are interested. It's always fun to try new things. When they're edible/drinkable anyway....

It was another great year for the festival. Despite the ridiculous temperature, a good time was had by all. It was great to see new vendors along with old favorites. This year I went on Sunday, which was nice because the crowds weren't as intense. Not so nice was that some of the vendors were running out of their goods. I still think this is a great festival celebrating some of my favorite things: wine, local and the North Market!