Wine Wednesday: 25th annual Mo's Seafood and Wine Festival

Next weekend you can grab the crab crackers and get ready to chow down on chowder. It's time for the most 25th annual seafood and wine festival. Now to experience the full bounty of Oregon's coastline you'll want to head to Willamette Valley Vineyards estate tasting room in Turner, Oregon and that is where we find estate general manager Spence Fogarty live this morning with a preview. Good morning Spence, good to see you. Good morning, thank you so much for having me. Absolutely, well hey we're excited that the festival's back for its 25th year so what can we expect? This is a big milestone. Huge milestone and two Oregon companies that represent the best of what Oregon has to offer which is world class seafood and world-class wine and so we're excited to feature live bands Dungeness Crab, of course world-famous chowder from Moe's and then we have some amazing specials on our Pinot Gris which pairs perfectly with the seafood. I was gonna ask what the the pairing idea is here you know what like specifically with a chowder what's what's your go-to? Yeah the go-to is our estate Pinot Gris. It's light, bright, it really enhances the seafood flavor and they have a lot of different options so you can get the Dungeness Crab, you can get the chowder, oyster shooters, bay shrimp, it's something for all seafood lovers. Oh I love that. I love oysters too. So I mean wine and all of that great seafood should be more than enough to get you in the door but you mentioned there's some great other entertainment, fun photo ops too, so what else can folks enjoy at the estate? Yeah absolutely it's a family-friendly event you can come out sit out on our patio and our little wine pods and overlook the vineyard you can sit in our world-class estate tasting room or if you're ready to party you head downstairs and you're amongst the barrels where the wine is fermenting we've got a live band down there so we expect a lot of dancing a lot of enjoying some some food and wine and then we also partner with the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission where we have Louie which is about a 20-foot inflatable crab so we get a lot of people taking photos there. Oh good, there he is. I was gonna ask you if Louie was gonna be there it is the largest inflated crab I've ever seen in my life. It could be the largest one in the world, who's to say? What a cool venue too to be able to have you know the wine barrels and the bands kind of collab what a really neat setting pretty unique isn't it? Very unique you get kind of a behind-the-scenes view you take the property in as your own so you're going down we've got knowledgeable team members here who can talk to you about wine and we don't just have the Pinot Gris we've got a variety of wines to choose from especially our Pinot Noir but one special that we do have is buy a case get a crab and so if you buy a case of a state Pinot Gris they will give you a crab fully cooked ready to eat right there and so that's something people really like to take advantage of. Oh yeah makes it a little smaller than Louie but delicious. That is so fun and if folks haven't been to the estate tasting room just off by five there in Turner I mean the views are just gorgeous what what else is going on at the estate this time of year if folks want to come out for a tasting? Yeah absolutely we invite anyone to come out we're open for walk-ins for this event and we're open seven days a week so we have different experiences such as our chef's counter where you can do a food and wine pairings we do pairings dinners every month you can come in out and do a tasting and we have world-class culinary so you can come and get pizzas delicious steelhead and really just come out and enjoy with your family a beautiful setting in Oregon. I think it's great and I know we got to let you go here soon Spence but I just have to ask where are you doing this zoom call from right now this is like a serious library yes. We are down in the library and so this is where we have all of our library wines some of our very high-end wines and this is part of a tour too so you can sign up to do a tour and tasting with us on our website and what that is as you come enjoy a tour through the cellar try different varietals of wines that we feature do a little cheese pairing and see some of the behind-the-scenes look of the special places that we have and hey you were kind enough to send a bottle of pinot gris up here for us as well so thank you we're excited to pair this with some wonderful wine Spence Fogarty a state general manager at Willamette Valley Vineyards cheers thanks for joining us. Cheers to you. Hey Moe's 25th annual seafood and wine festival it's happening next Friday through Sunday January 24th through the 26th tickets are 35 bucks 25 for club members and owners that includes a complimentary glass of wine and a $20 bottle credit for the festival learn more and grab your tickets right now at WVV.com