The Cincinnati International Wine Festival will return for its 34th year this March with three days full of tastings, fine dining, auctions and more wine than you can imagine, and tickets go on sale this Friday.
The festival will be held Thursday through Saturday, March 6-8 and will feature over 800 wines from across the world. Each wine festival ticket purchased will benefit over 30 local charities, including arts, education and health and human services programs. To date, the festival has given away over $7 million to charities.
This year, with the Duke Energy Convention Center undergoing large-scale renovations, the wine festival will be hosted on Freestore Foodbank’s Frank and Conny Gerson Campus at the Community Resource and Distribution Center on Rosenthal Way in Riverside. Festival organizers say the new location provides a state-of-the-art venue that aligns with the festival’s mission of giving back to the local community.
“The 2025 Cincinnati International Wine Festival will be the biggest and best festival yet. We have worked over the past three decades to grow the event each year so we can help even more local nonprofits reach their goals of helping the community. We have an amazing lineup of wines to share with festival visitors, and we are excited to have one of the world’s most renowned wine experts join us for this special weekend,” Sarah Gagnon, executive director of the International Wine Festival, said in a press release.
The festival begins with upscale winery dinners on Thursday, March 6, where guests can enjoy fine wine and dining at 10 prestigious restaurants across Cincinnati. The festival will continue Friday and Saturday, March 7-8, at the Frank and Conny Gerson Campus with grand tastings throughout the weekend and a charity luncheon and auction Saturday.
Grand tasting ticket holders can get unlimited samples of wine, as well as small bites and a keepsake Riedel wine glass. Wine industry experts and representatives from around the world will be on hand, and you can also purchase exclusive access to a collector’s tasting room that showcases rare and high-end wines.
This year, Dr. Laura Catena, a fourth-generation Argentine vintner, emergency medicine physician and author, will be the Honorary Chair of the International Wien Festival. Dr. Cantena founded the Catena Institute of Wine at her family’s winery, Bodega Catena Zapata, where she works as the managing director, helping choose blends for her family’s wines. She also founded her own winery, Luca Winery in Mendoza, Argentina, and has been called “the face of Argentine wine” for her role in studying and promoting the Mendoza wine region and Argentine Malbec.
You can buy tickets for the International Wine Festival here starting on Friday, Nov. 29. Tickets vary by price depending on the experience.
Freestore Foodbank’s Frank and Conny Gerson Campus at the Community Resource and Distribution Center, 3401 Rosenthal Way, Riverside. More info: winefestival.com.
This article appears in Feb 21 – Mar 5, 2024.
