SUMMERSVILLE, WV (WOAY) – This week’s One Tank Trip takes us on a visit to a local winery. The Kirkwood Winery up in Summersville has been in business for more than 30 years. They sell a large variety of wines that you’ve probably seen in your local grocery store.
“We have been in business for about 31 years,” said Co-owner Frank Dix. “We’re in statewide distribution, we’re all over West Virginia. We also have a mini distillery. We make moonshine, rye whiskey, some bourbon.”
They have 28 different kinds of wine for sale all across the state. They specialize in sweet wine that comes straight from their vineyard. And located in the back of their store is a mini distillery where they make their whiskey products.
But one of the things the Kirkwood Winery is most known for is its long-standing, yearly Grape Stomp Festival.
“This is the 30th year of the Grape Stomp. Two full days of music. We’ve got two bands on Friday and five on Saturday.”
Last year’s festival was unfortunately canceled due to COVID-19, so they are excited to bring things back for this year. There’s going to be live music, wine tastings, and of course an opportunity to get in the huge bucket and stomp some grapes.
The custom-made buckets can hold hundreds of pounds of grapes that plenty of people will get the chance to have some fun with this weekend when the festival returns.
“There’s not a whole lot of wineries around, so we feel it’s nice to have one in our community, and I think the community appreciates that as well.”
Tickets for the 30th Grape Stomp Festival are on sale now or can be purchased at the gate the day of. The festival begins Friday, September 17 at noon and continues until Saturday.
And being located in our very own Nicholas County in Summersville, you can easily get there on just one tank of gas.
