Sabile Wine Festival 2012

For the fourteenth year running, the Wine Festival took place in Sabile from 26 to 29 July. Despite air temperatures exceeding 30 degrees at midday, there was no shortage of vendors, musicians, entertainers, or visitors.

As was to be expected, the biggest crowd gathered around the local wine vendors, who offered tastings and extolled their products. In total there were around seven vendors, and variations on the wine theme were plentiful - apple, blackcurrant, rowan berry, quince, rhubarb, grape, cherry, crabapple, and even lilac wine. The vendors were tormented by the heat and wasps, but were very talkative and happy to share their observations on the flavours of their wines and their contact details.

The whole town was adorned with crêpe-paper streamers, coloured balloons in the heraldic colours (yellow, green, and purple), improvised grape bunches, and the like. From the castle mound one could watch an attraction - sliding down the hill on wine foam. And that day, Wine Hill was open to all visitors free of charge (on other days the adult admission is Ls 0.30).

Some explored the vintage car exhibition, which occupied one lane; others peered at themselves in distorting mirrors; but almost all the festival participants periodically visited the cold-spring water pump not far from the church, where, taking turns, they filled bottles with the refreshing water, or dunked their sun-warmed heads, or splashed their faces and shoulders. The church building itself was an excellent refuge from the heat - tastefully decorated with flower arrangements, pleasantly cool, and, most importantly, open to visitors all day long.

Among the town's guests, visitors from Scandinavia and Estonia were noticeable - women in magnificent folk costumes and bright red stockings. On every corner, locals dressed in outlandish costumes played music, sang, and danced. The festival was a great success, but we couldn't hold out beyond four hours - we got in the car and headed for the sea, where the water, much to our surprise and disappointment, was fairly cool.