Two Notable Food & Wine Events Featured in November

Two of my favorite fall food and wine events are coming in November – one local, one not quite so local – but neither should be missed, even if you have only a passing interest in wines.

Bellingham Bay Rotary Club will host its annual Grape and Gourmet event on November 4 at the Bellingham Best Western Lakeway Inn. The festivities will feature food and wine samples from 21 local restaurants and 34 Pacific Northwest wineries such as Samson Estates, Bergevin Lane, Dunham Cellars and Lost River Winery.

The benefits of an event of this kind in Bellingham are twofold: first, it’s a great way to expose yourself to a number of top-class wineries and restaurants at a single venue; second, you’ll be contributing to the Bellingham Bay Rotary Charitable Giving Program, whose past recipients have included a number of local non-profit agencies.

VIP tickets, allowing admission from 5:00 to 8:30 pm, have already sold out, but there are still tickets available for tasting and grazing from 6:00 to 8:30 pm. The cost is $75 each and they can be purchased by phoning Bob Yost at 756-2751.

If you don’t mind traveling to Eastern Washington – and why not, there are plenty of great wineries to visit along the way – consider attending the Tri-Cities Wine Festival in Pasco on November 17 at the Red Lion Inn.

Approximately 65 Pacific Northwest wineries will be serving over 200 wines at the public tasting which runs from 6:00 to 10:00 pm. Tickets, which include wine samples, bread, cheeses and chocolate, run $55 each with additional hors d’oeuvres also available for purchase. For more information go to www.tcwinefest.com.