This weekend we were invited to attend the Fall Wine Festival at City Winery Nashville hosted by Nashville Wine Festivals. What a fantastic event! It was everything you need for a party in one place: music, unlimited drinks, food, and plenty of Instagram worthy photo backdrops!

City Winery has always been one of my favorite places to go for dinner and a show, but I’ve never really explored the whole building. It’s a huge facility with different bars and places to sit and sip your favorite glass of wine. My new favorite spot is upstairs on the outside patio with a downtown view of Nashville! Not only was the view great, the weather couldn’t have been better – 76 degrees with a slight breeze and not a cloud in the sky. On the patio, I enjoyed a Matua Pinot Noir Rośe and my husband sampled a glass of Relax Chardonnay while we enjoyed the flawless day.

Back inside while listening to the upbeat band, Ocean, our eyes spied a mimosa! Mimosas at a wine festival? It just kept getting better and better! We nabbed a mimosa and chatted with a friend we ran into. That’s the beautiful thing about Nashville- we have the perks of a bigger city with the charms of a small town. We’re always running into friends everywhere.

Next, we headed into the main dining room which was transformed into a dance floor thanks to DJ Qtip (that might be my favorite DJ name ever). One thing I really appreciated about this event is how well Nashville Wine Festivals set up the different wine stations. I’ve been to wine tastings before where you have to stand in line for what seems like an eternity waiting to get your glass filled. That was not the case here. The stations were spread throughout the facility with a few different wines at each table. We were able to enjoy the music and company without standing in lines the entire time.

After doing a little dancing and sampling some Tennessee Brew Works beer, we needed a little snack. In true Nashville fashion, music is always at the forefront. While waiting for our food, we were able to enjoy the extremely talented, Jessica Rose. Her vocals and guitar skills showcase some of the best of Nashville’s diverse music scene. We enjoyed our cheese box and a hot chicken biscuit on the lower patio. The cheese box included two types of cheese, strawberries, nuts, jam, and sliced bread. Unfortunately, the bread was a little stale. They thoughtfully offered a vegetarian option, but a gluten-free option would have been great as well.  Bread or not, it was a tasty snack to fuel us a while longer.

On to more wine! One of my favorites of the day was the Santa Julia Cabernet Sauvignon. It has the perfect mixture of rich black cherries and prunes balanced with the brightness of blackberries and gooseberries. We made our way back around to the patio while stopping to sample a few more wines and a mimosa or two. I can’t help but wonder how much of a dent we actually made in the available wines to taste, but we had a fantastic time and I can’t wait for the next event!