Inside look: North Market Food & Ohio Wine Festival

Inside look: North Market Food & Ohio Wine Festival

From cabernet sauvignon to chardonnay to hanky panky, there was a little bit of everything this weekend at the North Market Food & Ohio Wine Festival.

And when we say "hanky panky," we are actually talking about wine. Thankfully, no one was engaging in any real hanky panky at the event. (At least not that we saw).

The eighth annual festival suffered a little bit Saturday because of torrential rain, but the crowd perked back up again Sunday, thanks in large part to some beautiful weather.

At the three-day event, 18 wineries showcased their products at the North Market. The best part of it all is that every one of the wineries is from Ohio, proving once and for all that you don't need to buy from California or France to get a good bottle.

Most of the wineries brought fairly standard choices (pinot grigio, riesling, merlot), but the Maize Valley Winery out of Hartville, Ohio, easily took the top prize for most inventive wine names. In addition to the aformentioned bottles of hanky panky, the place also offered mad cow, big red pecker, and a couple of fruit-inspired wines called (quite simply) cherry and strawberry.

A few of our other favorite bottles were the gewurztraminer and the vendange a trois, mostly because they're fun to say.

Check out our photos of people who attended the event, and then read our interview with the North Market's marketing director, Mary Martinaeu.

If you want to see photos from more Columbus events, check out our pictures from Red, White & Boom, the Doo Dah Parade, all three days of ComFest, the Easton Art Affair, the Six Gallery CD release party, Bike Night at two bars near Polaris, the Offspring show at the LC Pavilion, and the Pride Festival.