Sip and shop returns to Washington

By David Hotle, GTNS News

After a successful inaugural event in 2017, the Main Street Washington Sip and Shop will return to the downtown area, offering participants samples of wine from 12 Iowa vineyards.

Main Street Washington director Sarah Grunewaldt said the number of locations this year has dropped from 15 locations in 2017, and there will be one fewer vineyard represented. This year Main Street is working closely with the vineyard to ensure the types of sample wines offered locally are the ones being brought to the event.

'We had about 285 people attending last year,” Grunewaldt said. 'It's kind of hard to tell, but based on the number of samples given out there were almost 300. For a first-time event we were very happy with it.”

The event will be held from 5 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 27. Commemorative stemless wineglasses will be available for purchase or pre-order on the Main Street Washington website. Funds from the event will support Main Street Washington. Wristbands and glasses will be available in Central Park beginning at 4:30 p.m. Glasses and tickets are also available at the Main Street Washington office. Participants must be over 21.

While the tasting will be held in businesses on Washington square, and a few just north of the square, Grunewaldt stressed the wine would not leave the businesses. A glass used for tasting will be filled inside the store, dumped, rinsed and carried to the next shop. She said at each tasting location, free water bottles will be provided for participants and each business is being asked to provide hors d'oeuvres to pair with the wine. The businesses also will have a dump-and-rinse station so any unconsumed wine can be dumped out and the glasses can be rinsed clean before moving to the next location. There will be no selling of full wineglasses, only tasting pours of no more than 1 or 2 ounces.

Grunewaldt had spoken with Washington Police Chief Greg Goodman regarding the events and Goodman had informed her no changes needed to be made, as there were no incidents involved with the inaugural Sip and Shop in 2017.

Grunewaldt also said a beer-tasting event that had been proposed this year has had to be postponed while Main Street is working through the legal aspects of holding the event.

'The state rules on breweries are different from they are for vineyards, so the organization of that event was a little more challenging,” she said. 'We are exploring some options to host it in the spring this coming year.”

She explained breweries are only able to offer 60 one-ounce samples at a serving. She also said Main Street was expecting the number of people attending to be about double the number of people at the 2017 Sip and Shop.

'Breweries coming from another part of the state can only pour 60 servings,” she said. 'It is not worth their time. After the first 20 minutes they would be out of beer.”