City Commemorates Festival With Special Wine

Morganton – For this year’s Historic Morganton Festival, the city will sell its very own brand of wine.
In celebration of the festival’s 25th year, committee members wanted to offer something special.

Last year’s festival showcased a wine garden at the old Burke County Courthouse.

„The garden was a huge success,“ says Sharon Jablonski, festival coordinator. „People absolutely loved it.“

The courthouse square transformed into a tasting area where North Carolina wineries offered samples of their best sellers.

This year, tasters can buy a special wine created in the Morganton area. The bottle commemorates the 25th year of the Historic Morganton Festival.

Event organizers approached Lake James Cellars to create something distinctive.

„They wanted something unique with a private label for the 25th year of the festival,“ says Josh Fowler, whose parents own Lake James Cellars.

The owners offered three new wines to festival organizers. They accepted.

The wines use a different variety of grapes, something Lake James Cellars has never sold before.

You can reserve a case by calling the Morganton Main Street office. Or you can buy a $15 bottle on Aug. 25 at the festival warehouse behind Mytho’s in downtown Morganton.

Sales go on for one day. Jablonski hopes to sell all 750 bottles.

The Lake James Cellars is offering two white wines with the Morganton label: a Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio. The winery also bottled one red wine, Italian Red, for the city.

All three wines were aged on site.

The wines are stamped with the Lake James Cellars label. The festival label was designed with artwork from the Main Street Office and other festival posters and pamphlets.

Jablonski says these unique bottles may become a tradition.

„We’ll see how it goes this year, and if people like them we may offer them again next year,“ she says.

Source; morganton.com