A Conversation with WineFest at St. Michaels' Co-Chair, George Wilson

WineFest at St. Michaels heads into its 18th year in 2027. I caught up with the festival's co-chair, George Wilson, to talk about how it all began, what's new this year, and what's in his glass lately.

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LRS: For people who haven't met you yet, George, please tell us a little about yourself and how you became involved with WineFest at St. Michaels.

GW: My co-chair of WineFest, Barbara Svenson, and I got involved at the onset of WineFest in 2009. The town realized no one was going to do a wine festival in the spring of 2010. We put a group together and developed a different kind of festival, one with a townwide presence, which was also founded to support various charities.

Through the years, we built the festival from its first-year attendance of about six hundred to its largest attendance in 2019 of about three thousand. Three thousand attendees tasting wine in St. Michaels makes for a very crowded town, but it also makes for a very enjoyable weekend. We also raised a lot of revenue for both the businesses in town and the charities we support.

The festival has now returned to being a townwide event, with several large-scale venues and a few smaller venues, all of which offer wine tasting. Throughout town, food- and wine-related gifts are available all day.

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LRS: WineFest is heading into its 18th year. What do you remember about those early years, and how has the festival changed since then?

GW: In the early years, we found that people's greatest interest was being able to taste new and unique wines they had not experienced before, and which they could purchase right at the festival. As festival attendance grew, we were able to add special auctions, Friday night special events, chef presentations, and winemaker seminars.

As a result, we all learned a great deal about wine. We also learned that drinking quality wine always results in a much more satisfying experience. But... you don't have to spend a fortune to do that. Many great wines have low overhead, and that allows the pricing to be very attractive. After the onset of COVID, we had to scale back to a purely VIP presence.

Now, while the VIP portion of our event offers great wines, our general admission attendees will taste the largest number of different labels and have golden opportunities to sample and purchase some truly great wines at tremendous values. And regardless of where you are tasting, the wines offered at WineFest represent the best mix the industry has to offer.

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LRS: There are plenty of wine festivals out there. What do you think makes WineFest at St. Michaels different?

GW: What separates WineFest at St. Michaels from other wine events is the opportunities that attendees experience. In today's society, the "experience" is the critical item for attendees.

The difference in our event is that people will get to taste every wine that is present during the event, and, most importantly, they will also be able to purchase those wines. We also have special auctions, winemaker events, and discount coupons for people who are interested in purchasing wine. Most wine festivals concentrate on drinking but not on learning about the wines.

We concentrate on tasting, discussing the wines with winemakers and wine representatives, and selecting labels to take home and continue to enjoy. The people pouring at our event are truly knowledgeable about wine; they are not people hired just to pour tastes of wine. For those reasons, our popularity is much higher. In addition, we are going to have low-alcohol and no-alcohol wines to taste this year. There is tremendous interest in this genre, and we see the value in that.

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LRS: St. Michaels is such a big part of the experience. How much does the town itself shape the personality of the festival?

GW: The huge advantage of attending WineFest in St. Michaels is the inherent beauty of the town itself. Here you have a gorgeous waterfront harbor town on the Miles River with beautiful vistas and lovely walkable streets.

We work hard with the town to place all of its beauty front and center, so our guests are enjoying St. Michaels at the same time they are tasting the magnificent wines available at this wine tasting.

When the tastings are over, there are plenty of shops, restaurants, ice cream parlors, and bars in which to enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening. Because the event is held at the end of April, there is plenty of daylight and normally lovely late-spring weather.

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LRS: When you're putting together the winery and wine lineup, what are you looking for?

GW: After doing more than twenty events in the past seventeen years, we think we have cracked the code on the best ways to put together a dynamite wine list. The wines people are tasting have to bring them pleasure in several ways. Further, it would not be prudent to think that every guest likes every wine, because that is not going to happen.

But we work hard to make sure that every guest finds wines they like and want to take home with them. We are also very intent on making sure that the people pouring the tasting samples are involved in the industry on a daily basis and have expertise in the wines they are presenting. Further, we have Maryland wineries who attend, and typically the winemakers themselves are on site during WineFest.

We make sure that we have wines that fit all taste profiles. Some of our wines are dry, some are off-dry, and some are sweet, such as dessert wines. We try not to have an over-concentration of any one type of wine. For example, if you come to VIP, you will find wines from every category. No matter what your type is, you will find wines that meet your desires.

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LRS: What's new for WineFest in 2027 that longtime attendees should know about?

GW: WineFest this year is going to have a great many new features, which we think are very exciting. First of all, our VIP event is going to change significantly. Your VIP tastings will be conducted in two separate locations, and you will visit one of the two locations each day of WineFest. You will not taste all of the VIP wines in one session, and you will have a lot more time for your VIP tasting. VIP ticket prices will vary based on how much wine you intend to buy. If you buy the VIP ticket, you will have a fifty-dollar purchase coupon included. If you buy the VIP Black ticket, you will have two seventy-five-dollar coupons included.

The real value of the VIP Black ticket is that your coupons are worth almost as much as what you paid for the ticket, and yet you will attend several hours of VIP wine tastings on each of the two days. Another new feature is our Friday night auction of specialty wines.

We're going to have some very unique wines to auction, and we expect interest to be very high. Many of the most popular features of WineFest will continue, such as our venues at Foxy's and Simpatico and the presence of our Maryland wineries throughout town.

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LRS: Wine drinkers have changed quite a bit over the years. What changes have you noticed in what festival guests want to taste or learn about?

GW: The overall drive among wine drinkers has definitely changed. There is a lot more interest in trying wines with varied tastes and profiles. Also, interest in lower-alcohol and no-alcohol varieties has increased greatly, so we are responding.

Wine drinkers are now much more interested in how wine pairs with food, so they're considering how different varietals match up with various foods. We explain that in our sessions.

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LRS: Is there a moment during WineFest when you look around and think, "Yes—this is exactly why we do this"?

GW: It would be difficult to answer this question, because there is no single moment when I look around and say, "This is exactly why we do this." But what I can say is that after all of the hard work to prepare for the weekend, when our WineFest VIP guests tell us what an incredible time they have had, it is very satisfying.

This is not meant to be a festival where we just drink, but instead one where we learn about our tastes in wine and how we can better enjoy it.

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LRS: What's one thing that happens behind the scenes that guests would probably be surprised to learn?

GW: One of the things that happens behind the scenes in the preparations for WineFest is last-minute changes, because wines we have picked become unavailable at the last minute, or winemakers who are scheduled to be at the event are unable to come due to personal problems. While none of these things are ever catastrophic, they do throw a big wrench into the planning.

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LRS: What do you hope someone discovers at WineFest—besides a new favorite bottle?

GW: The sincere wish of my entire team is that everyone discovers there are many aspects to enjoying wine. But one key aspect of enjoying wine is the pleasure it brings people through socializing and appreciating the uniqueness of each bottle when it is enjoyed among friends.

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LRS: For someone attending for the first time, what's your best advice for making the most of the weekend?

GW: If you are attending WineFest 2027 and this is your first visit, we want you to know that we have completely revamped the ticket process. Our VIP tickets are now priced such that you can't afford not to go VIP. If you intend to buy wine, VIP is the ticket to buy. When you consider the discount coupons included with the ticket, you are attending two days of WineFest for as little as twenty-five dollars. Don't hesitate to reach out to us, and we can explain everything to you.

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LRS: What's the biggest misconception people have about wine festivals?

GW: We cannot judge other wine festivals or the various misconceptions people may have about them. But this festival is anything but a drink fest. We have no interest in you getting drunk, but we do have an interest in you having the best time you can. You will meet great wine personalities, and you will have a great time learning about all the different types of wine available to you.

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LRS: Let's make it personal: What's in your own wine glass lately?

GW: Most people who know me well know that I am a lover of French Burgundy wines. But I try to enjoy as many different wines as I possibly can. I recently tasted a fabulous French Rhône red wine, a Crozes-Hermitage, and it is beyond a shadow of a doubt one of the finest Syrah-based wines I have ever tasted. And I don't want to mislead you: you will often find me drinking California mid-coast chardonnay and pinot noir. Come to WineFest VIP, and I'll share all of these with you.

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LRS: If you could share a bottle with any winemaker, historical figure, celebrity, or fellow wine lover, who would it be—and what would you pour?

GW: There is no doubt at all that if I could sit down with any famous winemaker or entrepreneur in the wine business, it would be Robert Mondavi. Why? Because Robert Mondavi changed the face of United States winemaking—not just California, not just Napa Valley, but all of United States winemaking. He proved that wine produced in America could be among the finest in the world. While I met Robert Mondavi for about thirty seconds, we never had a chance to sit and taste together, and I have missed that.

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LRS: Finish this sentence: A perfect weekend in St. Michaels includes _______.

GW: A perfect weekend in St. Michaels includes shopping, tasting great wine along the water, and staying at one of our great hotels. My personal favorite is the Old Brick Inn, but I might be biased about that.

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LRS: What are you most excited about when you think about WineFest at St. Michaels 2027?

GW: We are all most excited about the fact that we have changed up this event. We are going to have more great wines, we are going to have a larger VIP option that's much more affordable, and we are going to make sure that everyone has a wonderful time. You will not be drinking a large quantity of any one wine; instead, you will be tasting a great number of different wines and learning about all kinds of new labels.

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LRS: Let's end with this: What's one word that describes WineFest at St. Michaels?

GW: There is no one word to describe WineFest at St. Michaels. But if you come to this showcase event, you will have plenty of words to describe it.

George Wilson & friend