Swine Fest

Swine Festival is a wonderful collaboration of Iowa's wineries and Iowa's local restaurants teaming up to bring you pork dishes and wine samples all hosted by The Iowa Culinary Institute at DMACC in Ankeny.  It's actually a benefit for the viticulture and enology program at DMACC, so you can drink up happily knowing it's for a good cause!

Basically, you show up and get your map, wine glass and ticket for your bottle of wine and start sampling.  All wine samples, food samples and your bottle of wine are included in the ticket price (Which was $35 for 2013).  Designated driver/children's tickets can be purchased as well (For $20 this year) which included food samples, but not wine samples.

After you find your favorite wine you can trade your wine bottle ticket in at that winery's booth for your bottle of wine to take home.  I suppose you could drink it there, but with hundreds of wine samples, I'm not sure why you would.

Tip: get there early.  The lines start getting longer as the day goes on.

Some of the wineries there were Jasper Winery, Vida Loca Winery, Snus Hill Winery and many more. Some of the restaurants present were, Tacopocalypse, Tamales Industry, Mo Rub, Flemmings and many more.  You won't go hungry at this event!!

The rain held out long enough for spend a few hours basking in the porky goodness and washing it down with the juice of the Gods.  Hope you can make it out to next year's event!  I'll make sure to let you all know when it's time to buy your tickets!