FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                

January 30th, 2009

 The Portland Indie Wine Festival Celebrates Fifth Anniversary

The Most Intimate, Authentic Wine Experience of the Year, Now One Big Day

WHAT:
The Portland Indie Wine Festival (PIWF) is Portland’s premier wine weekend showcasing Oregon’s top artisanal winemakers.  At this award-winning event, Portland’s best chefs serve up local fare while guests taste the first release of the year from 40 impossible-to-find Oregon producers. 
 
The PIWF ensures quality. All wineries featured in the Grand Tasting are selected by an expert panel comprised of nationally acclaimed members of the media, wine buyers and seasoned winemakers, who taste through 150 + wines to determine who pours in May.

WHEN:       
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
1 p.m. – 6 p.m. for VIP Admission    
2 p.m. – 6 p.m. for General Admission

WHERE:       
Portland Wine Project
2621 NW 30th Ave.
Portland, OR 97210

HOW:
Tickets go on sale Feb. 1st and are available at www.indiewinefestival.com.
VIP Tickets: $125
General Tickets: $75

WHY:    
There are lots of great opportunities to enjoy Oregon wines, the Portland Indie Wine Festival is the only chance to discover Oregon’s undiscovered.

 ~ What’s New In 2009 ~

 
NEW VENUE:  
The Portland Indie Wine Festival is now at the Portland Wine Project, a new 10,000 square foot urban winery and tasting room in Northwest Portland’s Industrial District.

ONE DAY ONLY:     
The PIWF Grand Tasting takes place on Saturday, May 2nd as opposed to Saturday and Sunday. That means 2x’s the wine, 2x’s the food, 2x’s the experience, but not 2x’s the price.

VIP TICKETS: 
VIP tickets are available for those who prefer to browse without the crowds.
VIP ticket price: $125 – hours: 1 p.m. – 6 p.m.
General ticket price: $75 – hours: 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.

NON-PROFIT:   
2009 marks the launch of the Indie Wine Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to preserving and sustaining the art of craft winemaking.  The PIWF is the signature event of the Indie Wine Foundation.

PRODUCERS DINNER:  
Friday, May 1st, the Indie Wine Foundation is producing its first ever fundraising dinner hosted by award-winning sommelier Erica Landon at the nationally acclaimed Pearl District restaurant, Ten 01.  The Producers Dinner will feature exclusive flights of Indie library wines, most of which are no longer available to the public.  Guests will be seated among Indie rising star winemakers. Tickets are $150/person.

Tickets are limited and will be available at www.indiewinefestival.com starting Feb. 1st. 

INDIE WAREHOUSE SALE:   
The PIWF has introduced a new recession-focused event to take place during Saturday’s Grand Tasting – The Indie WINEhouse Sale – where ALL Indie alumni are invited to sell wine by the case, providing an added sales opportunity for the wineries and discount for consumers.  Discounts will vary, but it’s estimated that consumers will save up to 20 percent on these purchases.  A ticket to the festival is required for shopping.

~ Indie Online ~

WEBSITE:    www.indiewinefestival.com
FLICKR:     www.flickr.com/photos/indiewinefestival
BLOG:    http://indiewinefestival.wordpress.com

**Video and photos available upon request**

The Portland Indie Wine Festival was the 2007 recipient of Travel Portland’s President’s Award. 

The 2009 Portland Indie Wine Festival is presented by Pihl Excavating.  Co-produced by LAD communications and Flint Design co. Additional sponsors include Boedecker Cellars, Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP, Grochau Cellars, Hotel Vintage Plaza, Imbibe Magazine, Irvine & Company, LLC, Pazzo Ristorante, Portland Wine Project, Portland Wine Storage, Ten 01 and Travel Portland.

# # # 

Media Contacts:
LAD communications
Lisa Donoughe / 503.827.6564 / lisa@ladcommunications.com
Katie Burnett / 503.827.6564 / katieb@ladcommunications.com

One of our favorite things about the Indie Wine Festival is that it gives Portlanders the opportunity to taste a variety of wines in a convenient location.  As beautiful and special as a day spent wine tasting in Oregon’s wine country can be, we find we aren’t able to make the trek quite as often as we’d like.  Enter Stewart Boedecker and Athena Pappas of Boedecker Cellars and John Grochau of Grochau Cellars, who have teamed up to create Portland’s newest urban winery and tasting room, the Portland Wine Project.  Located in a fantastically beautiful, large industrial space in Northwest Portland, the Project provides the perfect setting for urbanites to get a taste of wine country.

Grochau and Boedecker epitomize what the Portland Indie Wine Festival stands for and we couldn’t be more excited that they’ve come into a partnership bringing wine into the city limits.  We love that the Festival can foster such relationships and help launch local brands.

Stewart and Athena poured their first wine (a chardonnay) at the first ever Indie Wine Festival.  Hear them talk about how their wines and the Festival have evolved in the following video: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1WkAYtlndc]

We’re so excited about the recent opening of the Portland Wine Project’s tasting room, and we hope you’ll make the quick trek to the Northwest Industrial District to experience fabulous wines made by true Indie pioneers!

For more information about the Portland Wine Project, click here and here.

Feel free to check out a blog about our fabulous day making wine at the Portland Wine Project, here.