Wine walk celebrates region's vintners

SANDPOINT — No less than a half dozen national articles have been written about autumn in North Idaho in the last few years.

We know how beautiful fall can be in North Idaho. Cottonwood, birch, and aspen change color when the weather gets cooler, turning into golden yellow coins, the streets become a kaleidoscope of colors, with oak trees golden and maples turning sunset shades of orange and red. Later in the season, tamaracks transform to brilliant yellows.

In September 2011, the Huffington Post stated: “Situated just south of the Canadian border — and a stop on the International Selkirk Loop — the Idaho town of Sandpoint boasts an eclectic mixture of plant life and landscapes.”

North Idaho radio host Gary Lirette boasts that the town’s fall foliage is the myriad of the rainbow, with buckthorn, larch and maple turning yellow [and] hawthorn going from deep crimson to purple-red.”

Sandpoint is also on 43-mile Lake Pend Oreille, which the New York Times noted was “lined with birch, aspen and tamaracks.”

Being named America’s Most Beautiful Small Town by Rand McNally, many thought that the magazine had only seen Sandpoint during summer and winter, missing what some considers our most beautiful time of year: autumn.

So, why does business and tourism slow to a crawl in October? Some baby boomers wait until the tourists are gone to adventure out. Others wait until their children are in school to have their fun. It would seem a natural time of year to experience Sandpoint. This is what the Sandpoint Independent Restaurant and Bar Association concluded last spring.

In a sequence of meetings the group discussed ways not only to get locals out having fun, but to also draw in Canadians and visitors from the Inland Northwest: Spokane, Walla Walla and the Tri-Cities.

This was the impetus that created the Oktoberfest and Harvest Wine Walk, bringing a host of events, the newest of which started Oct. 4 with Sandpoint’s Oktoberfest lasting to Nov. 1 with the Harvest Wine Walk. Oktoberfest was by all accounts a smashing success attracting hundreds to the Old Granary by Evans Brothers Coffee. There was live music by bands including a polka band and dance, a performance by the Sandpoint Music Conservatory, vendors and artist’s booths, a Waiter Race, and Beer Taste Off between Laughing Dog, Kootenai River Brewing, Selkirk Abbey, and MickDuff’s. Even with bringing in a judge from Spokane, Jamie Lynn Morgan who blogs the Brews, Bicycles and Bites in North Idaho, Laughing Dog won both categories.

The Harvest Wine Walk followed Oktoberfest. All around Sandpoint for the entire month of October visitors and locals alike can taste fine wines, and meet the winemakers at several locations throughout town where patrons can taste wines from local and regional wineries in many of the Downtown restaurants, bars, shops, and galleries; there is also live music in a warm and friendly community atmosphere. On Friday Trinity at City Beach had the first Wine Dinner and was sold out, and other wine events last weekend attracted many, and there was business all over town, much like summer months.

This is the goal of the event; to get people out enjoying the brisk Sandpoint autumn, learning about wine, and listening to live music and enjoying events.

Information: www.DineAroundSandpoint.com