The Budbreak Wine Festival will kick-off what organizers hope becomes an annual event this weekend.

The name of the festival was inspired by the flowers that bloom on the grapevines. The buds break off and that is what becomes the grapes.

The festival will take place Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Main Street. Twenty-six North Carolina wineries will participate in the festival.

“The Budbreak Festival will be a unique experience, with emphasis on wine education, including food and wine pairing, fine art exhibits, great music, and for those participating, a wine judging contest,” said Bob Meinecke, president of the Mount Airy Rotary Club, which is co-sponsoring the event with the Mount Airy Downtown Business Association.

Main Street will be blocked off from Oak Street to Independence Boulevard. There will be three entrances, one at Independence and Main, Virginia and Willow Street and one at Oak and Main.

Saturday also will feature a number of food vendors who will prepare food to go with the wines including The Lodge at Primland Resort, Olde Mill Golf Resort, 13 Bones and Aunt Bea’s catering.

Music for the event will begin at noon with Jazz singer Melva Houston, Stevie Barr and No Speed Limit, Carolina Knights with Tim Calloway and Cheap Shots out of Winston-Salem. Legendary Saxophone player Bobby Keys of the Rolling Stones will be joining the different groups to play throughout the day.

There will 10 juried art dealers available at the festival. Patrons will be able to view the art that was judged as part of the fine art show headed up by Matt Edwards, executive director of the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, and even take home a piece if they choose.

“There is a great deal of enthusiasm around the fact that this will be a major spring event that will have a major economic benefit for Mount Airy and Surry County, along with the charities that will benefit from the event,” Meinecke said.

Meinecke said the festival will stand out from other wine festivals in that the focus will be on fine arts.

“It’s all about art appreciation with wine being an art, food being an art form, art itself and great music. We took the fine arts and raised the bar as far as that goes,” Meinecke said.

On Thursday, there will be a fine wine and food pairing dinner at Cross Creek Country Club. Head judge Pierre-Louis Teissedre will be available at the dinner. Advanced reservations and payment is required. Tickets are still available and are $65. This is not part of Cross Creek’s membership and tickets must be purchased separately. Information on reservations is available on the festival’s Web site.

Other wine and food pairing dinners will be held Thursday night at Twenty-One and Main in Elkin and at Harvest Grill at Shelton Vineyards.

Budbreak Wine Judging

The Budbreak Wine Festival is unique in that the wines will be judged during the festival and all of the participating wineries were required to make their wines available for tasting on Saturday.

On Friday, the four judges including Catherine Rabb, Ed Williams, Grant Holder and Teissedre will begin wine tasting at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History Annex. The results and an awards banquet will be held for wine makers and sponsors at Old North State Winery Friday night. This event is not open to the public.

Teissedre is a full professor on the faculty of Enology of the University Bordeaux 2. He is author of more than 200 publications and communications in international journals with peer reviews and is co-inventor of five patents.

Holder has been a professor of chemistry since receiving his Ph.D. in analytical and electrochemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1988, and a full professor since 1999. Holder spearheaded an effort which created the first public-private mobile laboratory in the U.S. for the North Carolina wine industry.

Ed Williams spent 29 years as a newspaper reporter and editor and managed to incorporate writing about wine during the last 18 years of that career. He continues to freelance for various state and regional wine magazines, is the wine columnist for the Greensboro News & Record, is the editor of the N.C. Wine Journal, and has taught basic wine appreciation courses for UNCG.

Rabb has owned several restaurants in Charlotte and was program chair for hotel and restaurant management at Central Piedmont Community College. She is a certified hospitality educator, a certified specialist of wine and a certified specialist of spirits. She also holds a sommelier certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers.

The results of the judging will be made available to the public on Saturday.

Horse racing and restrictions

Since this Saturday also coincides with the Kentucky Derby, organizers do not want people to have to rush home. They have also arranged for a viewing of the race beginning at 6 p.m. Big screen TVs will be set up in the windows of Brannock & Hiatt and in the Old North State Winery to show the race.

No outside coolers may be brought into the festival. Wine may be purchased and checked at the wine-check area to have it held securely until attendees are ready to leave the festival.

Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the gate and general admission is $10 for non-drinkers or those under the age of 21, children under 12 will be admitted free with a paid admission.

The Rotary’s proceeds from the event will go towards the Eradicate Polio Campaign sponsored by the Rotary Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The challenge for Rotary Clubs nationwide is to raise $200 million in three years. If that goal is reached, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will contribute $355 million to that cause.

Parking will be available in all of the municipal parking lots and at the old Spencer’s parking lot on Willow Street.

The proceeds will also go towards helping local charitable organizations such as United Fund of Surry.

For more information on the Budbreak Festival, go to www.budbreakfestival.com.

Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.