The Batavia MainStreet group is looking forward to getting folks out with a new event in March it hopes will put a spring in peoples’ steps.
The “Step into Spring: Wine Walk,” set for 1 to 5 p.m. March 21 in downtown Batavia, will include over a dozen local businesses that will be offering one-ounce pours of both red and white wines.
The event resembles popular winter cocoa crawls, only with wine, officials said, while also offering a chance to experience a “walking tour through historic downtown Batavia, sampling wines while discovering unique shops, boutiques and businesses along the way.”
Tickets are $39 and are available at www.downtownbatavia.com. Each ticket includes 14 one-ounce wine pours at downtown locations, red and white wine options at every stop, a commemorative wine glass and lanyard and a treat to enjoy during the walk, organizers said.
Kristen Desler, assistant director of Batavia MainStreet, said the new initiative has actually been in the works for a while.
“This event has actually been a couple of years in the making. This is something that our downtown businesses have been asking for now for several years and it’s taken a bit of time to lay the groundwork for it and get our staffing prepared to do it and work with the city to get all the permissions,” Desler said.
Desler said the event is not a pub crawl but rather another way to give downtown businesses exposure while participants enjoy a manageable walk and a popular beverage.
“This won’t be taking place at just bars and restaurants – it’s primarily going to be taking place at retail businesses and that was part of the incentive for us,” she said. “This concept has been really successful in other communities and the wine is really just the trading force. You get a one-ounce pour at each location.”
Desler said the group “is working with a wine distributor to curate a really nice selection,” adding that wines won’t be “those you just find in Batavia or in Illinois.”
“There will be really delicious and interesting wines that you can try at each location,” she said. “For us, the motivating factor is that people get to, one, walk the town and see how walkable our downtown truly is from business to business and, two, get inside the businesses and see the beautiful items offered there. It’s a promotion for businesses and getting people in the door at a time when they are often struggling to do this themselves.”
Wine as the common beverage was selected, Desler said, because “it’s just a fun addition to getting people out.”
“We’re calling it the ‘Step into Spring: Wine Walk’ because we know people feel that by mid- or late March, they are itching to get out of the house and experience the downtown, and we’re just hoping that the wine from business to business just keeps everybody warm and feeling good and encourages them to keep exploring the downtown,” she said.
The Geneva Winery in Batavia will be participating in the upcoming event.
“We are very excited to participate,” said Erin Di Silvestro, event coordinator at the winery. “We love being here in Batavia and part of the events that they do.”
“We look forward to people coming in and trying our wine. We make it here locally,” she said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
