Although I get the majority of my wines from wine clubs, I love attending local wine events as well. One of my favorites is the annual wine festival in Indianapolis at Military Park. It has had a couple of different owners but is currently called “Uncork Me Indiana” and is owned by Brothers Malloy Events. It is usually held on a Saturday in June.
General Event Details
Depending on whick ticket you buy, the event lasts between 4 and 5 1/2 hours. We have started getting the VIP tickets (more on that later). But even the General Admission tickets give you plenty of time to get to all of the vendors. Everyone gets a small tasting glass for unlimited samples.
This year there were around 30 wineries and meaderies as well as 12 food trucks and various vendors. I am fairly certain that every winery was from Indiana– at least every one that we talked to! As we sampled the wines, we tried to learn about the wineries as well, including where they are located, if they have tasting rooms, and how they distribute.
You can bring water bottles and pretzel necklaces— both of which I highly recommend! Pretzel necklaces are a perfect palate cleanser while you are walking between booths. And help you stay at least a little sober. If you don't know what a pretzel necklace is, here is my TikTok explaining them!
@sunshinetriciameyer Wine festival this weekend calls for a pretzel necklace. What other snacks would you add? #winetiktok🍷 #snackhacks #pretzels #winefestival #concertsnack ♬ original sound – Tricia Meyer
You can purchase bottles of wine from the vendors while you are doing your tastings and then they hold them all for you in one location for you to pick up at the end of the day. That makes it very handy!
There is ample space to spread out your lawn chairs and blankets, as well as HUGE trees if you are looking for shade. There is also plenty of music and games for between tastings (you WILL need a break!) They also have water stations where you can refill your own bottles.
One other thing I would suggest you bring is a wine glass lanyard. We have them for both stemmed glasses and non-stemmed. You can get them on Amazon for about $5 each. These are the ones that we use. Super handy for holding your glass while you are eating your pretzels!
How Was the Wine?
There is such a huge variety of wine in Indiana, both in terms of quality and varietals. We don't grow a LOT of grapes in Indiana, but we do grow some. And we have a lot more wineries than people expect. I stuck to mainly the sweeter and fruitier wines not just because of the heat of the day but because of alcohol volume and the number of wineries we were trying to hit.
Was all of the wine great? No. But was there something for everyone? Yes! Every time we go, we discover new wineries that we then end up visiting later in the year. I tasted some wines this year that are now my all-time favorite fruit wines. (think peach, blackberry, etc)
VIP Experience
I hate to even tell you about this because I don't want them to raise the price next year, but the VIP tickets are totally worth it! We got in 90 minutes before the General Admission tickets and were able to hit about 75% of the wineries during that time. At that point, we NEEDED a break. So we went back into the private shaded tent area for awhile to drink water.
Just when we were ready to hit the tents again, they started a pairing session featuring wines AND foods from Indiana (this year was Smoking Goose). They brought around the charcuterie of 5 different items and then 5 wine pairings to go with them. Both Smoking Goose and the wineries were there to explain all of the pairings. The wine pours were a really decent size, so we once again needed a break!
(Small aside… one of the best parts of the VIP area are the air conditioned restrooms. Between the wine and the rehydrating on such a hot day, they were amazing.)
Overall Review
We ended the day buying some wine slushies because they looked fun and it was super hot out. We felt like the crowds were manageable, the wineries were great, and the event was well run. Even when we haven't gone as VIP, we have been happy just laying around on our blankets like a big picnic. Needless to say, I am already waiting for next year's tickets to go on sale!
In the meantime, you can check our site for wine clubs that ship to Indiana.
