2nd Annual Opera House Wine Tasting a Success
.jpg)
October 15th, 2012 – Over 100 people spent the beautiful evening of September 29 at the Opera House Wine Tasting in New Rockford, enjoying fine wines, exotic appetizers, and live entertainment while raising money for the Dakota Prairie Regional Center for the Arts.
The signature event raised a significant amount of funds for the non-profit theatre organization, mostly due to the generous donation of silent auction items. Auction items included original artwork and crafts, many bottles of wine and wine/kitchen accessories, a fishing trip, framed lithographs by artists Thomas Kinkade, and an elegant upcycled dining table and gardener’s potting bench handmade by local artists and Medora trip to name a few.
Live musical entertainment was provided by Fargo trio Amanda Standalone and the Pastry Girls. The wine tasting portion of the event was held outdoors in a lofty enclosed tent, while food was served inside at the Latte Lobby. The silent auction was set up in the dance studio. For the Bison fans in the crowd, the NDSU football game was live streamed and projected onto a large screen in the theatre itself.
Event volunteers participated in a server training session to become familiar with the wines for the tasting, and were able to provide background and answer questions for guests on each wine. With the new format this year, all wines were available for two hours, and tasters took around a passport which was stamped as they sampled each wine. Designated driver tickets were available as well, which included access to all parts of the event except the wine samples.
The twelve different wines were specifically selected by the staff of Jack’s Tavern as representative of their respective regions. Among them were four white wines, five red wines, two pink/rosés, and a sweet Japanese plum wine, the apparent crowd favorite. The wines sampled came from around the world: California, Oregon, Argentina, Chile, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Japan. Bottles left over at the end of the evening were live auctioned.
Exotic foods representing the different regions were planned, prepared and served by Deb and Alex Belquist. The hors d’oeuvres buffet included empanadas, miniature quiches, Stuffed Dates, Asian Salad, Sausage & Sauerkraut.
“We have put together a great team of DPRCA staff and volunteers,” comments Deb Belquist, Managing Director of DPRCA, “and we are very grateful for all of the help we get to keep DPRCA flourishing.”
DPRCA’s production team has already begun planning next year’s wine tasting, with the date set for September 28th, 2013. Hundreds of staff and volunteer hours, generous donors, talented entertainers, and enthusiastic guests truly made this year’s tasting a fantastic success.