Festival Events 2025
We brought back your favorite events and added some exciting changes for 2025!
Friday August 29, 2025
Popcorn and Wine Pairing
Date: August 29, 2025
Time: 5:00pm
Location: I/G Winery
Cost: $TBD
Back by popular demand!
Yes folks, we are bringing back this popular classic hosted by longtime friend of the Festival, (to say nothing of Utah’s most entertaining wine instructor), Jim Santangelo, owner of the Wine Academy of Utah, who will walk you through this fun and frolicking wine pairing, using freshly made popcorn flavors made just for this event by our friends at Digby’s Market.
Be prepared to be absolutely amazed by what wine and popcorn can do together.
Culinary & Carbonic
Date: August 29, 2025
Time: 6:00pm
Location: Water Canyon Resort Winery
Cost: $TBD
This food and wine event brings together the culinary craftsmanship of Water Canyon Resort’s Executive Chef, Indy Tooke, pairing the delectable flavors of Water Canyon Resort Winery’s carbonic style wines, to create a food and wine event like no other. There is great food, great wine, music, fun people and warm fire pits on tap for this event. Plan to join owners Shane and Kalie at Water Canyon Winery in Hildale for this night of great food, live music, fireside conversations and Shane’s amazing Utah wines.
Whiskey and Cigar Social (B.Y.O.C. – Bring Your Own Cigar)
Date: August 29, 2025
Time: 9:00pm
Location: I/G Winery’s Backyard
Cost: By The Glass.
Join I/G Winery’s mixologist Michelle Jones for a shot of bourbon, scotch or rye whiskey, or ask the team to make you the ultimate cocktail, to put the perfect nightcap at the end of the first night of the festival. No ticket required, just be sure you find yourself behind I/G Winery around 9pm in order to join the fun.
Saturday August 30, 2025
Ciders, Meads, and Non-Traditional Wines of Utah
Date: August 30, 2025
Time: 10:30am
Location: I/G Winery’s Backyard
Cost: $TBD
Explore a world of wine beyond the grapes. Join Utah fruit wine and mead makers Jay and Lori Yahne, of The Hive Winery & Spirits Company, for an in depth look at the incredible versatility and complexity of meads, hard ciders and wines made from some of your favorite fruits.
Come learn about the differences in meads (wine made from honey) and hard ciders and how different/or similar wines made from currants, peaches or even pears are from their grape wine cousins. Forget what you think you know about those cheap, sweet versions you may have tried in the past; instead come prepared to try these types of wines when they are created by professional winemakers.
Utah’s AVA & AVA’s of The World – American Viticulture Area Educational Class
Date: August 30, 2025
Time: 12:00pm
Location: I/G Winery’s Backyard
Cost: $TBD
Join European Master of Wine Sheral Schowe, owner of the Wasatch Academy of Wine as she creates another master level class on the world of wines and how Utah wineries are integrating themselves into this exciting world. We are still working with Sheral to create new course material that will be fun, educational and something we know you’re going to enjoy while you try different Utah wines. Stay tuned to this page for further updates as we get the curriculum finalized.
Harvest Twilight Wine Tastings
Date: August 30, 2025
Time: 4:00pm
Location: Three Southern Utah Wineries
Cost: $TBD
Labor day weekend is the traditional kick off of harvest of our earliest ripening fruits. Over the years we have had a lot of requests from Festival attendees asking if they could see how the wineries are conducting their respective harvests. As a result we are hoping to move the traditional “Flights and Bites” event out to the wineries and let you choose which winery you would like to visit. Once there, you will enjoy a personalized tasting with the winemakers and their teams. Enjoy bites from Beehive Cheese Company and Digby’s Market as you visit the winery of your choice and enjoy a customized wine tasting while learning about the wine and discussing the days harvest.
We are still working out the details on this event but check back here and we will post new information as it is finalized.
Terroir to Table Dinner
Date: August 30, 2025
Time: 6:00pm
Location: Red Acre Farm
Cost: $TBD
Join us for a unique dining experience under the open sky at Cedar’s famous Red Acre Farm CSA. The dinner will also include wine from local Utah wineries paired to perfection with the farm fresh cuisine. There will be appetizers and hard ciders before we gather for a farm tour. Then, a sit-down dinner will be served family-style (or farm-style). Discussion and questions from the guests will be encouraged. Farmer and chef Sara Patterson will create the menu with ingredients dictated by what they have freshly harvested there at Red Acre Farm.
Epicureans On The Edge – It’s Back Baby!!
Date: August 30, 2025
Time: 6:00pm
Location: TBD
Cost: $TBD
Back by popular demand, Epicureans on the Edge is a culinary experience intended to be “on the edge” both locationally and gastronomically. It is for those that would like something a bit more on the “wild” side. Come enjoy cuisine of wild meats and vegetables, including a few culinary nods to the foods of Utah’s native peoples elevated by our chef’s gourmet interpretation. We are still putting together the final details of this dinner so more information will be coming soon. Put the date on your calendar and check back here for more information about the menu and the location as we get the final details worked out.
Twilight Tasting, Terroir to Table & Epicureans Nightcaps
Date: August 30, 2025
Time: 9:00pm
Location: I/G Winery Tasting Room
Cost: By The Glass
After you have completed your Twilight Tastings, Terroir to Table or Epicureans On The Edge experience, make your way over to the Tasting Room at I/G Winery for a specially handcrafted cocktail designed to be the perfect complement to the Twilight Tastings, and the Terroir To Table dinner or ask for the wilder cocktail intended to be the perfect finish to the Epicureans On The Edge dinner. Come by and enjoy these specialty cocktails (or its mocktail version) and see how it adds the perfect finish to day two of the Utah Wine Festival. No ticket required and open to all Festival attendees.
Sunday August 31, 2025
Viticulture and Vino
Date: August 31, 2025
Time: 11:00am
Location: Mindira Vineyard, Rockville, UT
Cost: $TBD
Southern Utah’s Mindira Vineyard, is located on the banks of the Virgin River, in Rockville, just outside Zion National Park. It is a young vineyard, but the location is second-to-none. We have held the event here the last two years and it always proves to be a festival favorite. Once again, Digby’s Market will be bringing another fantastic picnic feast for all to enjoy and I/G Winery will bringing their award winning wines. Digby’s Executive Chef, Heidi Orr is busy working on another fun quick bite pairing before the actual picnic feast gets underway and Winemaker’s Caitie and Austin Sorrels walk you through a taste experience showing how I/G wines and (whatever amazing pairing Heidi comes up with this year), can make significant differences on the final tastes of the foods. This one sells out quickly because anyone that has been to this event knows… you do not want to miss it.
The Grand Dinner
Date: August 31, 2025
Time: 6:30pm
Location: TBD
Cost: $TBD
The meal to end all meals is all you need to know about the Grand Dinner. It is our final big dinner of the weekend and we pull out all the stops to make sure you have enough memories to last you until next year. Last year we held this dinner on the beautiful stretch of shaded and flower-festooned walkway between the Eccles and Randall Theater’s on the beautiful Shakespeare Theater grounds. We are still working out the particulars of this years location and will be posting more information here as we get it figured out. We are in intense negotiations with Executive Chef Kevin Jerrold-Jones to put together another amazing menu of flavor combinations like nothing you have tried before. As you arrive, we will get you started with a glass of dry mead paired with the perfect appetizer. Once everyone is there, our hosts will take you to your seats where you will begin the rest of this fun and frolicking culinary journey. Sit down, relax, chat with old friends, and make some new ones, as you enjoy the food of one of Southern Utah’s great chefs, perfectly paired with several outstanding Utah wines.
The Grand Dinner Nightcap
Date: August 31, 2025
Time: 8:30pm
Location: I/G Winery Tasting Room
Cost: By The Glass
This was a huge hit last years so I/G Winery has once again agreed to put together a special cocktail designed to compliment the Grand Dinner dessert and help you enjoy yet another perfect finish to final night of the Festival. This special drink will be available for this night only, so gather your friends and head over to I/G Winery’s tasting room to discuss your favorite parts of the weekend while sipping a little slice of heaven. No ticket required, just head over to I/G Winery’s tasting room.