The Cincinnati International Wine Festival

Who We Are: The Cincinnati International Wine Festival is a charitable, non-profit organization founded in 1991 to raise funds and distribute grants to area charities while promoting the wine industry. The festival plans celebrate its 30th year of giving back one glass at a time October 1-2, 2021 at the Duke Energy Convention Center, with Kroger as the presenting sponsor. As the Midwest’s premier wine festival, guests select from more than 700 wines from 250 wineries each year, while enjoying delicious food, a silent auction, education sessions and more.

What We Do: The Wine Festival is typically made up of four prominent events: Winery Dinners, Grand Tastings with a Collectors Tasting Room and silent auction, a Charity Auction & Luncheon, and the Russ Wiles Memorial Golf Tournament each year. This year there will also be a virtual “Cincy Wine Fest @ Home” experience in March during our typical festival time. The Wine Festival provides a fun, educational and memorable experience for attendees to learn about and sample fine wines while connecting directly with winery representatives on site. These events enable the festival to distribute annual grants to 35 Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area charities supporting the arts, education, health and human services.

Why We’re Important: Since 1991, the Cincinnati International Wine Festival has given back more than six million dollars to local charities. Each year, the festival hosts a wine competition where experts participate in a blind wine judging of the wines to be featured at the festival’s grand tastings. Nationally recognized gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded. This provides wineries from around the world the opportunity to gain exposure to not only the trade, but also to the general public. Every year, we also select an honorary chair to kick off the festival weekend and offer a unique perspective for our attendees. The festival’s economic impact on Downtown Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky is profound, with thousands of attendees eating at local restaurants, shopping at local stores and staying in hotels.

How We Serve the Community: We distribute hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to local charities each year. Our beneficiaries are passionate about supporting the arts, education, health and human services. We are proud to support non-profits such as Cincinnati Public Radio, the Freestore Foodbank, Cancer Family Care, and many other local wonderful organizations. A complete listing of our beneficiaries is under the “Our Charities” section of our website.

How You Can Help: Attend Wine Festival events! Your ticket purchase directly helps local charities and is partially tax deductible. If we can get together this fall, you can buy tickets to: • Attend a gourmet meal with wine pairings at one of the area winery dinners in September. • Select from three Grand Tastings with a Collectors

Tasting Room option. • Participate in the Charity Auction & Luncheon to bid on outstanding wine lots, trips and dinners. • Follow us on social media (@CincyWineFest) and help spread the word! • Donate wine lots for the Charity Auction & Luncheon. • Become a wine festival sponsor. • Bring your friends! Buy tickets at winefestival.com

The Cincinnati International Wine Festival 11159 Kenwood Rd., Suite F, Cincinnati, OH 45242 513-241-3434 winefestival.com @CincyWineFest (FB, Twitter, Instagram)

Executive Director: Kelly Weissmann Email: kweissmann@winefestival.com

Event Coordinator: Amanda Pack Email: apack@winefestival.com

Board Chair/Members: Connie Wiles, President; Barry Oppelt, Treasurer; Mary Ann Bokenkotter, Missy Duggan, George Elliott, Marilyn Harris, Mary Horn, Jason Milburn, Michael Miller, John Mocker & Marj Valvano