READING PA – In time for Valentine’s Day, the Berks County Wine Trail has scheduled a two-weekend event that features “decadent chocolate paired with award-winning local wines” at participating wineries. It’s “our largest event of the year,” the trail proclaims on its website.
The weekends – Saturdays and Sundays, Feb. 10-11 (2024) and Feb. 17-18; all days noon to 5 p.m. – are intended to give ticket-holders “plenty of time to visit all of the wineries and spread out“ their travel, it adds. Tickets good for all four days are available online now for the advance sale price of $10 per person. Ticket prices rise to $15 during the event.
Eleven wineries participating in the Chocolate and Wine Pairing event include:
- Blue Mountain Winery, New Tripoli PA;
- Bouchette Vineyards, Bethel;
- Deerfoot Winery, Shoemakersville;
- Kog Hill Winery, Morgantown;
- Lilys Vineyards and Winery, Reading;
- Long Trout Winery, Auburn;
- Manatawny Creek Winery, Douglassville;
- Ridgewood Winery, Birdsboro;
- Setter Ridge Winery, Kutztown;
- Stonekeep Meadery and Wine Cellars, Blandon; and
- Stoudts County Winery, Shartlesville.
In case of inclement weather, Wine Trail promoters ask ticket-holders to “call ahead to confirm your itinerary with destination wineries.”
Wine Trail member wineries “are peppered across the greater Berks County area” with Reading at its center, its website explains. With several events a year, however, they reportedly attract visitors well beyond a local reach: from Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, and the greater Lehigh Valley area; from New York City and greater Philadelphia; and from Harrisburg, Lancaster, and the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area.
Ahead on the Berks County Wine Trail
Additional events are planned along the Wine Trail in coming months.
- It has scheduled a “Sangria Summer” outing for June 15-16 (Saturday and Sunday); details on it are in development;
- Its “Cheese & Wine Pairing Weekends” are tentatively planned for sometime in October, with dates yet to be finalized, its website indicates. Like the Valentine’s event, it involves a ticketed, self-guided tour of participating member wineries, in which an array of artisanal cheeses are paired with Berks County-produced wines; and
- During December, visitors can enjoy samples of locally-made cookies paired with a featured wine from each trail winery. Specific dates have yet to be announced, but the event will be free and no reservations will be required, the Wine Trail website stated. Tastings will be offered “from many of the wineries’ full tasting lists,” it noted.
Photo by Kelsey Knight on Unsplash, used by Travels With The Post under license
- Feb. 10 Saturday, Chocolate and Wine Pairing Weekend, noon to 5 p.m., ticketed, “decadent chocolate paired with award-winning local wines” at 11 participating wineries across portions of Berks County on its Wine Trail, centered in Reading PA
- Feb. 11 Sunday, Chocolate and Wine Pairing Weekend, noon to 5 p.m., ticketed, “decadent chocolate paired with award-winning local wines” at 11 participating wineries across portions of Berks County on its Wine Trail, centered in Reading PA
- Feb. 17 Saturday, Chocolate and Wine Pairing Weekend, noon to 5 p.m., ticketed, “decadent chocolate paired with award-winning local wines” at 11 participating wineries across portions of Berks County on its Wine Trail, centered in Reading PA
- Feb. 18 Sunday, Chocolate and Wine Pairing Weekend, noon to 5 p.m., ticketed, “decadent chocolate paired with award-winning local wines” at 11 participating wineries across portions of Berks County on its Wine Trail, centered in Reading PA