Festival serves up top beers, wines

You might want to pace yourself. The perfect opportunity to taste wine and beer from the Northwest (and beyond) is happening Friday.

For $40 you can sample any of the wares from some 110 wineries and 32 breweries at the annual Spokane Cork and Keg Festival. If you’ve been itching to try some of the up and coming wines in the state, or sample from a microbrewery your friends are talking about, this is the place to do it.

The event is a fund-raiser for the Spokane Chapter of the Washington Restaurant Association, which in turn, provides scholarships for the hospitality service and career programs at the Spokane Community College. It will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Red Lion Hotel at the Park, W. 303 North River Drive.

Chef Peter Tobin and students from Spokane Community College’s Northwest Culinary Academy will make substantial hors d’oeuvres to complement the wine. The event also helps raise money to send students to the American Culinary Federations Knowledge Bowl.

There will be silent auction items and a wine store. Wines will be sold at 15 percent over cost, and there is no sales tax because it’s a fund-raiser. “So there are great wine deals if you like what you are drinking that night,” said Donna Tikker of the Washington Restaurant Association.

Tickets are available at all Rosauers supermarkets in the Spokane area; Huckleberry’s, 926 S. Monroe St.; Vino, 222 S. Washington St; and Williams Seafood Market and Wines, 10627 E. Sprague Ave., and can be purchased anytime before the festival starts on Friday. Tickets can be charged by phone at 467-7744. There may be a limited number of tickets available at the door.

Wine deck

In 1981 there were fewer than 20 wineries in Washington. Today, there are several hundred wine producers in what has become the second largest wine producing region of the United States.

If you hadn’t noticed, there is an easy way to catch up on the trend. The Collector’s Editon of Washington Wine Playing Cards from Raconteurs Press are illustrated with wine facts and trivia about the new wine region. Each card in the Bridge-size deck has an original watercolor illustration on some aspect of the state’s wine industry, including all of the main grape varieties and maps of the state’s growing regions.

The cards can be found in Spokane at Uncle’s Games or online at unclesgames.com for $10.99 per deck. For more information, go to www.washingtonwinecards.com.