Disclaimer: this post is in partnership with the Orlando Wine Festival. We experienced this event free of charge to be able to share our experience with others. All thoughts are our own. A special thanks to Worth Doing Events and Growth Marketing Firm.
This past weekend we attended a really fun local event: the 3rd Annual Orlando Wine Festival. We thought this was a perfect opportunity for a day date and enjoyed plenty of wine, food, music, and fun. We also loved that this event supported a local animal non profit too. Read on to hear more details about our day of “pour decisions”…
Event Details
When: Saturday, February 15, 2020 from Noon – 8:00pm
Where: ICON Park, 8375 International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819
Benefitting: A portion of all partnerships, vendor fees, and wine sales go directly to the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando
Ticket Options:
$20 General Admission - Includes entry to the event. Wine sold separately.
$40 Premium Admission - Includes entry to event + unlimited wine samples + 8oz stemless event wine glass (does not include VIP wine sample options)
$75 VIP Admission - Includes entry to event, VIP lounge and VIP stage area + 10 oz. stemmed event wine glass + VIP wine sample options + heavy hors d'oeuvres + skip lines + VIP only bathroom options
Bonus: All paid tickets also receive a (1) year voucher for The Wheel. ($27.99 value)
Enjoying some wine samples and the perfect weather at this year’s festival.
The Location
ICON Park is a 20-acre, walkable entertainment destination in the heart of Orlando’s renowned travel district. A perfect place to ride, dine, drink and explore, ICON Park has more than 40 amazing restaurants, funky bars, boutique shops and can’t-miss attractions, all anchored by The Wheel standing 400 feet in the air. (We also loved the large garage with free parking!)
The Orlando Wine Festival was split up throughout the complex with a check-in area up front, a grassy garden area, a back lot with more vendors and food trucks, as well as an indoor space with a VIP lounge. (One critique for this particular location, since the area was so split up, it would have been great to receive a map/guide of some sort upon arrival to explain where everything was and not miss any booths.)
Signage helped to point people to different areas.
Having a view of the wheel all day was pretty cool.
Here is a part of the front grassy area with vendor booths and some tables for mingling.
The Wine
Wine booths were dispersed throughout different areas and we were surprised by the amount of booths and varieties available. It was listed that there were over 35 vineyards and 100+ wines to try. We were able to sample everything from Rosé to Reds and were impressed with the quality and taste of much of what we tried. The pours were very generous and we found them a great value for the entry fee. There were also some other drinks available such as a Sangria bar, a regular bar with drinks for purchase, as well as some coffee vendors too.
Rose all day!
The Sangria bar offered lots of add in options.
Booths had info sheets on hand to describe various wines.
We loved the staff shirts too!
The Food
We did find a few booths had free samples to try. We loved getting some bites from the Carrabbas booth and some cheese varieties from Cabot. There was also plenty of food available for purchase from items at certain vendor booths as well as a line of different food trucks too.
Sangria and food samples from Carrabbas.
Lots of cheese varieties from Cabot.
Some of the food trucks from the lineup.
The Entertainment
We loved all of the live music onsite, especially while enjoying the nice weather. Even if live music wasn’t playing there were DJ tunes in-between performances. We loved hearing acoustic covers from Heather DeSanctis and seeing local bands on stage such as Universal Funk Orchestra and The 502s. The music definitely stood out and made the event feel like a party.
Great acoustic covers in the front area.
Lots of jammin’ bands in the back lot.
Vendors
In addition to wine sample booths there were many vendor tents as well. You could find ones for big brands, local businesses, as well as small artisans selling some goods. We enjoyed perusing crafts and chatting with businesses we were interested in. We even came home with a bag full of coupons and swag too which is fun!
Finding new brands…
…discovering fun wares…
…and meeting cute puppies.
Overall Thoughts
We were so glad we able to experience the Orlando Wine Festival this year. We were able to enjoy a lot of generous wine samples as well as vendor booths. The live music in the great weather was a perfect way to spend a Saturday. The ticket price seemed very fair especially considering we have a voucher to try out the Icon Wheel too (will definitely be looking forward to that on a future date!). We also were happy to hear that a pet charity would be benefitting as well. We will be adding this event as a must do on next year’s calendar as well. Until then, cheers!
We got the opportunity to play Bay Hill Golf Club thanks to winning a charity auction a few months back. Here are our thoughts on playing a course where some of the best to ever play the game have competed and won.