Bitter cold doesn’t deter 800 wine-tasters in Medina

Wine About Winter is a fast sellout for Medina Area Partnership

Photos by Ginny Kropf: (Left) Sarah Fisher, left, a member of Medina Area Partnership, places a wrist band on a ticket holder to Wine About Winter. From here, participants picked up a goodie bag and purchased tickets for a chance to win a basket of prizes from participating businesses. (Right) Wynter Dumont of Albion gets a goodie bag from her companion as they prepare to embark on Wine About Winter. They do it every year, she said.

MEDINA – They came in pairs, some in groups. They came with friends and they came with family – 800 in all.

Today is Medina Area Partnership’s 16th annual Wine About Winter, an event which began with far fewer participants and continued to grow to a fast sellout again this year.

“All 800 tickets were sold out a month ago,” said Wendy Oakes Wilson, a member of Medina Area Partnership who has worked at most of them.

Wendy Oakes Wilson, left, and Ann Fisher-Bale take a break from checking in ticket holders to Wine About Winter on Saturday afternoon. They checked in 300 participants in 20 minutes. Start times were staggered between 1 and 3 p.m. to even out the crowds.

Temperatures that threatened to plummet into single digits did nothing to deter the revelers who came from across Western New York.

Suzanne Marinelli came from Canadaigua. She is the sister of Gabriella Albanese from Orleans County. She attended with Gabirella, her husband Larry, and friends Robin Alexander and Drew Lederhouse. They braved the cold to wait in a long line outside Medina Senior Center for registration to begin, while Marinelli chose to wait it out in the warm car. The Albaneses have gone to every one of the wine-tasting events, Larry said.

Autumn Polar refills the table of goodie bags at the Senior Center for participants of Wine About Winter.

Outside the Senior Center, Patrick Weissend proofed everyone before letting them go inside, where Wendy Oakes Wilson and Ann Fisher-Bale checked their tickets. After receiving a wrist band from Sarah Fisher or Amber Sherman, participants picked up a goodie bag, containing a list of participating businesses, a pen, ice scraper, wine glass, crackers, water and a sheet of coupons. There, they also had the opportunity to buy tickets to win one of the raffle baskets each store provided.

No one seemed mindful of the cold, especially Wynter Dumont of Albion, who joked about her name.

“I do this event every year,” she said.

Charise Blew of Batavia was also not mindful of the weather. She was just glad it wasn’t windy.

Patrick and Elizabeth Dannebrock of Burt were participating for the first time, attending with her mom from Hartland, who had done it before.

Ariana Pluskwa pours Cayuga White for Chris Long of East Amherst at Creekside Floral during Wine About Winter.

At Creekside Floral, Ariana Pluskwa poured Cayuga white wine for Chris Long of East Amherst, who came with a friend, Maria Bussenger. Long’s son Steve is a Medina firefighter and paramedic, and he and his wife have done the event before, so his mother knew about it, she said.

“I like the day out with friends, and I like to see the shops,” Chris said. “I try to buy something, even if it’s little, at all the shops. That’s why I brought my little backpack. I bought three bags of sponge candy at Della’s Chocolates and a raffle ticket at the Knights of Columbus to support their project to put in an elevator.”

Jayne Kuhn of Creekside Floral said the majority of people buy a little something. She has also worked during Ale in Autumn, and said each event draws a different variety of people.

(Left) Patrick Weissend proofs a ticket holder to Wine About Winter on Saturday outside the Senior Center in Medina, where participants in the event were registered. (Right) Larry Albanese of Albion, his wife Gabriella and friends Robin Alexander and Drew Lederhouse wait in the cold for registration for Wine About Winter to start at the Medina Senior Center.

Several participants were located “outside the beaten path,” but still had good crowds all afternoon. This included the Medina Railroad Museum, Medina Historical Society and American Legion.

At the American Legion, the place was packed and people were streaming down the sidewalk from the shops on Main Street. The Legion took advantage of the crowds by promoting the Breakout Band that night, open to the public, sale of American flags, a chicken and biscuit dinner on Feb. 22 and sale of raffle tickets for a fire pit.

Cathy Fox, a member of the Legion and head of the County American Legion Auxiliary, said they had sold 100 raffle tickets before 3 o’clock.

“This really is such a positive event,” Fox said.

At the American Legion on North Main Street, Joni Meehan pours Black Widow’s Berry wine for Tina Henning of Lockport.