Join The Cork Report for #openlocalwine on November 9, 2024

After a three-year hiatus, the celebration of local wine returns this fall

It’s back! After a three-year hiatus, #openlocalwine, an international celebration of local wine (wherever local is for you), will return on November 9, 2024.

Co-founded in 2020 by Gina Shay and myself, #openlocalwine started to support and help local wineries during the COVID-19 pandemic when tasting rooms were closed. That first event and the follow-up in 2021 were both hugely successful, with dozens of wineries across the United States and Canada offering special #openlocalwine packs with deals ranging from free shipping to exclusive library wines to steep discounts on popular wines. There were virtual tastings, and in 2021, when restrictions had started to lift, there were at-winery events and offers, too.

Thousands of local wine fans posted pictures of the wines they opened on Facebook and Instagram, and tens of thousands of social interactions on those platforms.

Thankfully, while COVID-19 remains a part of our lives, wineries operate normally today. So, it’s time to evolve #openlocalwine a bit. It’s still intended to support local wineries but more than anything, we want it to be a celebration of local wine.

I hope you’ll join me and thousands of fellow local wine lovers on November 9, 2024, for #openlocalwine night.

It’s easy to participate:

1. Buy a bottle (or bottles) of local wine. I’ll help by building a landing page for all of the offers wineries are pulling together for the event.

2. Open in on November 9, 2024, and post pictures on social media with the hashtag #openlocalwine (don’t forget to tag the winery and The Cork Report on Instagram or Facebook, too, so we can share your posts!)

3. Drink the wine, enjoy it, and celebrate local wine.

If you’re a winery, restaurant, or other related business that would like to participate by offering an #openlocalwine pack, hosting a wine dinner, or some other special for the event, please fill out the 2024 #openlocalwine Offer Form.

As those offers come in, I’ll build a landing page listing them on this site.

I’m also working on some merchandise (t-shirts, stickers, etc.) that should be available to order soon. A portion of the proceeds will go to one or more wine-related charities and/or educational programs I’m researching right now.

I will probably host some sort of in-person event on November 9 at a winery here on the North Fork (likely with my buddy and regular co-conspirator, Carlo DeVito of East Coast Wineries.)