900 attend Medina wine-tasting event
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – A big crowd of 900 people are participating at the eighth annual Wine About Winter in downtown Medina.
Celebrity Day Spa is one of 30 wine-tasting stops on the event. This picture shows, from left: Brandy McKinney, Day Spa owner Edee Hoffmeister, and Amanda Riggle.
They were giving out gift certificates and coupons, as well as sips of wine. Hoffmeister said the event draws people to the downtown business district, giving them a chance to socialize and see many of the businesses.
Hoffmeister praised the Medina Business Association for its effort in planning and organizing the event.
“They have done a wonderful job with it,” she said.
Some of the commemorative wine glasses are displayed on a table at the start of the wine-tasting.
The 900 people is up from 850 a year ago. Cindy Robinson, the Business Association president, said the event will likely be capped at 900 in the future.
“We’re going to have to limit it because we don’t want long lines and we don’t want to overload the businesses,” she said.
Some of the Wine About Winter participants are lined up on Main Street to sample some of the wines.
Joel Hurlbutt, 23, of Albion and his friend Angela Corloni of Albion are pictured at the English Rose Tea Shoppe in Medina. They said they were impressed by number of family-owned businesses in Medina.
This group of friends and family stayed together on the wine stops. They are inside The Bread Basket. The group includes, from left: Dalton Vercruysse, Erika Myhill, Lisa Wheatley, Lori Myhill, Kirk Myhill, Mary Washak, and Dale Watts.
Paul Schwenk, right, of Schwenk Wine Cellars in Kent pours wine for Jim and Paula Dresser of Medina at A Kut Above.
Mrs. Dresser said the event has become a chance to reconnect with friends and visit Medina’s many shops in the downtown.
Peggy Johnson, one of the co-owners of Kut Above, said the event has proven popular.
“It’s a perfect time of the year,” she said. “In February a lot of people have cabin fever.”
