Gabby
Gabby follows her passion at the Latin American Community Center Grand Ball, has a di-vine time at a wine and beer fest in Felton, and legs it out at DSO’s The Night of All Nights bash.
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All in Good Taste
Felton’s di-vine establishment, Pizzadili Vineyards & Winery, hosted Delaware’s first Wine and Beer Festival on October 17. Perfect weather for a wine tasting celebration, to be sure. Happy festival-goers buzzed around the property, hopping in and out of wine lines and settling in for a picnic on the winery’s picturesque grounds.
The Who’s Who of the Delaware booze business was in attendance: Representatives from Milton’s Dogfish Head, Georgetown’s 16-Mile Brewery, Delmar’s Evolution Craft Brewing Co., Greenville’s Twin Lakes Brewery and Bear’s Stewart’s Brewery were just a few.
A Delaware Artisan Tent was on site, offering unique gifts and wares by crafters from all over the state. Gabby flipped for the iridescent, beautiful, fused-glass wine bottle stoppers handmade by Stephanie Seeman. They’re pretty enough to make one at least consider not emptying the bottle.
Gabby watched Stewart’s Brewery manager Scott Rogers pour beer after beer after beer for enthusiastic aficionados, somehow managing to not waste one precious drop. The dress code seemed a little confused—Gabby spied two distinct fashion groups: Napa Valley Cool and Day-Glow T-Shirt Indifference. One of the many fluorescent-shirted folk—each emblazoned with Beer Mug Mafia across the front—was Dawn Moore of Magnolia.
Were you aware there was an organized ring of beer-drinking gangsters in Delaware? Neither was Gabby. “Everyone likes to belong to a group,” Dawn said. “After you’re out of college, unless it’s like a Moose Lodge or something like that, it’s hard to find a place to fit in.” Hence the Beer Mug Mafia. “We’re just a group that gets together, likes to have fun, try new beers,” she said. “Some of our members review beers on our Facebook page.” The group’s favorites of the day were the 16 Mile and Evolution.
Dawn and her crew were too busy participating in the event’s keg toss and grape stomping to actually get to that other drink. “We didn’t really do the wine,” she said. Vineyard co-owner Kathy Pizzadili did do wine, however, and spent the day giving tours of the facilities. “It’s been thrown out there to go to twist-off caps on our wine,” she said to a chorus of deflated groans from the tour group, who clearly like their wine the old-fashioned way. There are always a few hiccups for a first-time event, but Gabby must give credit where credit is due: The Rosato samples were invigorating and delicious enough to distract Gabby from long lines and a lack of space for folks to party under the big tent.
Page 3: Night of All Nights