Join us for Kokopelli’s first ever Bluegrass Festival. We’ll have live Bluegrass Friday night (6:30 to 10:30) and all day Saturday (1 pm to 4 pm; and 6:30 to 9:30 pm), featuring a variety of local Bluegrass bands.

If you aren’t familiar with Bluegrass music, think of “Dueling Banjos” in the movie Deliverance or the tunes from the Beverly Hillbillies. Bluegrass music is typically quite fast tempo, using mainly un-electrified string instruments like fiddles, banjos, acoustic bass, guitars, and mandolins.

Bluegrass was inspired by the old-time fiddle bands and balladeers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and originated in the Appalachians (Kentucky, Tennessee and the Carolinas). Traditional Bluegrass harks back to America’s roots, inspired by Irish, Scottish and English immigrants and influenced by African-Americans, jazz and blues.

To honor this, at the Kokopelli Bluegrass Festival we’ll be cooking up foods from the home of Bluegrass music – Hot Brown Sandwiches from the Brown Hotel in Louisville Kentucky and “Low Country” dishes from the Carolina’s. How about some Jack Daniels Baked Beans, Fried Catfish, “Hog” Wings and “Roasted Roadkill”?

All kidding aside, as with all festivals at the Kokopelli winery, you’ll be introduced to new styles of food and we’ll show you how to select the right wine to complement these different dishes. It’s not just a fun bluegrass party and a great time – it’s educational too!

Cost: $10 includes 6 tasting tickets, souvenir wine glass and $1 off on any bottle of wine purchased for drinking at the Bistro or to take home. FREE to children or non-drinkers.

• News from the Nose
• The 6th Annual Kokopelli Krush
• Kokopelli at Oktoberfest!
• Featured Wine: Rhinewine
• Cooking with Wine: German “Erdbeerbowle”
• Winning BBQ Recipe
• Live Entertainment at the Bistro
• Our Hours
• Wine Education Classes

Do you think that you and a partner can crush more than 3.53 pounds of grape juice in just 2 minutes with your bare feet? That’s what last year’s winners, Megan VanDerzee and Samantha Cornell, were able to do.

The Kokopelli Krush pits teams of two against one another. Each team has one partner in the vat squishing grapes through their toes and the other partner furiously keeps dumping in more grapes. (It sounds fun, and it is!!!)

At the end of two minutes we measure the juice.
The “Hollow Foot” award is given to the team that produces the least juice. This was won last year by Julie Gaffney and Garret Percy, who crushed just 1.08 pounds of juice in 2 minutes!

The “Purple Foot” award goes to the team that crushes the most juice, and each of these teams get to compete on Saturday night in a KRUSH-OFF to vie for the Grand Prize.

KRUSH Times:
Friday 7:30 pmy 7:30 pm
Saturday 1:30 and 7:00 pm (Krush-Off to follow)

Last year 97 teams participated and we went through over 1,200 pounds of grapes. (Don’t worry, we didn’t use the crushed grape juice. We slaked our thirst with aged Kokopelli wines!)

The cost is just $15 to enter, or free to watch! To pre-preregister, call us at: (480) 792-6927 or email kokopellimike@aol.com

Win or lose, everyone has a great time – participants and spectators. The party lasts all weekend long, with special entertainment, delicious food and of course, wine tasting.

While we love to have Festivals at the Bistro, Kokopelli also participates in community festivals all over the state. We especially like Oktoberfest events where we can show off our German-styled wines – Rhinewine and Gewürztraminer.

Come see us at:

Way Out West Oktoberfest presented by WaMu
www.wowoktoberfest.com
October 5-7
Tempe Beach Park
 
“Old World” Phoenix Oktoberfest
www.phoenixoktoberfest.com
October 13
Margaret T. Hance Park, Phoenix

We’ll have all our wines available for tasting at both of these events, and at the Phoenix Oktoberfest we’ll be brewing up some special German “Erdbeerbowle” (see recipe below).

Oktoberfest is much more than beer, polka and bratwurst! Try a nice cold Rhinewhine on a hot October day and I am sure you will agree!

Prosit!!!

In honor of Oktoberfest, this month’s featured wine is Rhinewine, made from a combination of Riesling blended with Muscat grapes.

Riesling is a white grape variety grown historically in Germany’s Rhein and Mosel river valleys. A Riesling wine can span a broad rage of styles, being produced in both dry and sweet variations. The Muscat grape is the world’s oldest known grape variety, very aromatic with a sweet floral aroma.

By blending the Riesling and Muscat, Kokopelli’s Rhinewine achieves a beautiful and soft-styled wine, with a noble scent. Rhinewine is an extremely “food friendly” wine, especially good with pork, fish, and of course, most German foods.

Price: $15 per bottle (get $2 off with this newsletter)

All-time German favorite "Erdbeerbowle" is a type of strawberry punch, made (of course) with wine!

Ingredients:
2 lbs strawberries
4 ounces sugar
2 lemons
1 bottle Kokopelli Rhinewine
1 bottle dry Sekt (German sparkling wine) Kokopelli Brut
Lemon balm for garnish (optional)

Method:
Wash the strawberries and cut out the stems. Place strawberries in a bowl and cover with sugar. Wash the lemon and cut the peel with a sharp knife into thin spirals. Chop one lemon peel spiral finely and mix in with the strawberries along with the juice of one lemon. Place in the refrigerator (the sugar should have already dissolved). After 2 hours, pour off the juice from the strawberries and put to one side. Cover the strawberries with Kokopelli Rhinewine and allow to stand in a cool place for 2 hours. Just before serving pour on the strawberry juice and the rest of the wine. Hang the rest of the lemon spirals on the side of the bowl and pour in the Sekt. Serve cold with a sprig of lemon balm as garnish (optional)

Join us every Friday and Saturday night for our “Kool Jamz” dinners with live music from 6:30 to 9:30 pm.

September entertainment lineup:

October entertainment lineup:

Bistro@Kokopelli Winery

Monday to Wednesday - 11:30 am to 6 pm
Thursday - 11:30 am to 10 pm

Happy hour 4 pm to 7 pm with special prices on appetizers and wine.

Friday and Saturday - 11:30 am to 10 pm
Sunday - 11:30 am to 5 pm

Tutto Bene: NEW HOURS
WEEKDAY LUNCH 10:30 am to 2:30 pm
CLOSED SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
Call 480-443-4524 for reservations & information

If you are interested in learning more about wine-making, plan to join us for our special wine-education classes. Join our 4th Generation Italian wine-maker, Dennis Minchella, for an evening of fun and facts. (Includes wine tasting and appetizers)

Call the Bistro for more information: (480) 792 6927.

The annual Vineyard Tour lets me do one of the things that I enjoy the most, teach people about wines and viticulture, especially here in Arizona. The public is finally catching on to the fact that Arizona is a great place to grow grapes and make wine.

But in fact, the production of wine grapes in Arizona dates back to the late 17th century when missionaries planted vineyards and made wine for their sacraments. It wasn’t until the later 1700’s when missionaries established their California missions that wine grapes were planted in California!

Most of the vineyards are in the southeastern part of the state. The Bonita Valley, where we source the majority of our wine grapes, is one of the largest organically certified fruit producing areas in the Southwest. It offers class A1A soil, abundant water, and a near perfect microclimate, making this an ideal place for wine grape production.

With over a dozen vineyards in the state, today Arizona boasts 13 active wineries and has eight more under development. The wine industry here is booming!
We are proud to be part of the Arizona wine industry, and I am happy to be able to introduce you to the great wines we make here in Arizona.

Now, I invite you to sit back and enjoy a Kool refreshing glass of Kokopelli wine.

Your winemaster (the nose), Dennis Minchella.

But even with this, Germans drink more red wine than white, and they still drink about five times as much beer as wine.  Maybe that’s why Germany is the world’s seventh largest wine exporter!

Cheaper by the Dozen!!!

Pick up a Frequent Buyer Card and get free wine!

Here's how it works:
Each time you buy a bottle of Kokopelli Wine at one of the Bistro's (for eat in or to take home), we'll stamp your Frequent Buyer Card
.
Once you have purchased 12 bottles, the next one will be FREE. (Still wines only)

Mention this newsletter at the Bistro and get a free glass of wine with Friday or Saturday night with your dinner purchase.