12A • March 27, 2015 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Savor Cannon Beach ‘too popular’
For the first
time, all festival
events sold out
By Erick Bengel
Cannon Beach Gazette
Clutching a pink umbrella
raised against the afternoon
drizzle, Maryann Smith, a
volunteer alcohol monitor,
scanned the glasses of Savor
Cannon Beach’s Wine Walk
participants as they exited
Cannon Beach Treasure Co.
and Dogs Allowed Cannon
Beach, two neighboring busi-
nesses holding wine tastings
on North Hemlock Street.
Whereas the licensed
servers within the stores
were watching out for peo-
ple with a noticeable volume
of wine in them, Smith was
watching out for glasses with
a noticeable volume of wine
in them.
Smith spied a mid-
dle-aged man strolling out of
Dogs Allowed, a red blend
sloshing around in his glass.
Smith intercepted him.
“Excuse me! You’ve got
to take your wine back in-
side,” she told him.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Not pay-
ing attention,” he said, down-
ing the remainder rather than
dump it into one of the buck-
ets. “Thank you.”
His fellow wine walker, a
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“We’re in the third hour, I
think, so ...”
Smith’s face went quizzi-
cal. The pair may have been
in their “third hour,” yet the
Wine Walk was only in its
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“We don’t know what
they did before they started,
though, right?” she noted as
they walked away.
Sold out
Smith — one of 22 al-
cohol monitors stationed
throughout town for the
Wine Walk held March 14
— was volunteering her
time for the Cannon Beach
ERICK BENGEL PHOTO
Savor Cannon Beach volunteer Carolyn Anderson, right,
slowly pours a red blend during Battle of the Blends on
March 13 at the Cannon Beach Community Hall. The event
coincided with the first-ever Battle of the Bites.
ERICK BENGEL PHOTO
At North By Northwest Gallery, Laurie Barton, left, and her husband, Paul Barton, sip
white wine samples poured by Patrick McElligott, representing Sineann Winery, based in
St. Paul, Ore. The Wine Walk attracted about 500 participants.
Preschool & Children’s
Center. Smith, whose
6-year-old daughter, Gwen,
used to attend the Chil-
dren’s Center, sits on the
board of directors.
Originally a stand-alone
event created as a fundrais-
er for the children’s cen-
ter, the Wine Walk became
incorporated into Savor
Cannon Beach, a citywide
wine and culinary festival,
in 2010.
For four hours, Smith
and her fellow volunteers
politely policed the 500
wine walkers sampling
the vintages of nearly 40
Northwest wineries at 20
Cannon Beach businesses.
Christy Bisping, the
children’s center’s devel-
opment director, served as
an alcohol monitor outside
Northwest By Northwest
Gallery and Primary El-
ement Gallery on North
Spruce Street.
“I try to stand here and
have a good attitude ... to
add to the event instead of
just standing here,” said
Bisping, who, like other
monitors, gave people di-
rections and helped control
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patrons streamed in and out
of the establishments in a
jovial bustle.
The Wine Walk, a sellout
event for the last two years,
raised about $13,500 for the
children’s center, according
to an early estimate by Gary
Hayes, the event organizer
and president of Explorer
Media Group.
The total revenue for
Savor Cannon Beach is ex-
cepted to meet the $75,415
expense budget, Hayes
said. The budget included
a $32,000 grant from the
city’s Tourism and Arts
Fund, which devotes a por-
tion of the city’s lodging
taxes to arts-related events
intended to draw overnight
visitors and/or tourists from
more than 50 miles away.
He estimated that Savor
Cannon Beach drew at least
700 people into town, and,
based on information gath-
ered through advance ticket
sales, more than 90 percent
of the festivalgoers made
the 50-plus-mile journey
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day festival.
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that all of the Savor Can-
non Beach events sold out
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Walk sold out in advance,
he said.
‘Too popular’
As Hayes watched about
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Cannon Beach Community
Hall for the synchronized
“Battle of the Blends” and
“Battle of the Bites” com-
petitions the evening of
March 13, he quickly be-
came aware of Savor Can-
non Beach’s most conspic-
uous challenge at this point.
“We’re too popular, I
think,” he said, adding that
the event organizers are
talking about moving the
“battles” into a larger ven-
ue in 2016.
“As you can see, we can
only hold so many people,”
said Donna Beckwith, a
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gesturing toward the mass
of tasting, munching oeno-
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lots before “Battle” fatigue
set in. “Obviously we can’t
have any more (in the Com-
munity Hall).”
Savor Cannon Beach has
evolved as its popularity
has grown.
Combining “Battle the
Blends,” a contest among
four red and four white
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Northwest, with the brand
new “Battle of the Bites,”
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non Beach chefs, is a “way
to up the culinary factor for
these events,” said Kristin
Tschannen, events marketer
for Explorer Media Group.
In this year’s “Battle of
the Blends,” Bob Neroni,
a chef at EVOO Cannon
Beach Cooking School,
won the red category with
his 2012 Neroni Chef’s Red
Blend. Alexandria Nicole
Cellars, of Horse Heaven
Hills, Wash., won the white
category with their 2013
Shepherds Mark.
At the maiden “Battle of
the Bites,” Douglas Brown,
a Seasons Cafe’s chef, won
with his Surf & Turf Slider.
On the previous night,
the Washington wines
cleaned up at the Thursday
Night Throwdown, where
participants tasted 12 wines
of six varietals, one each
from Oregon and Wash-
ington. Washington won
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etal categories (though The
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served as an opener, got
several write-in votes).
‘Really nice’
Laurie Barton, of Lake
Oswego, remembers the
early days when “you used
to be able to walk right up
and get a ticket the day of,”
she said.
Not anymore. And peo-
ple like her and her hus-
band, Paul Barton, bear a
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the responsibility for Savor
Cannon Beach’s success.
In the beginning, “we just
stumbled across it,” she said.
“And then we told all of our
friends, and more friends.”
A good many people
who make Savor Cannon
Beach an annual tradition
have gotten to know the
town through the festival’s
wine-tasting opportunities.
“Because of the way this
event is set up, we go to a
lot of the different busi-
nesses, the galleries and
restaurants and hotels, and
it’s just... really nice,” said
Dana Carter, of Portland,
who has been enjoying Sa-
vor Cannon Beach since
2011.
“There are worse prob-
lems to have than being
sold out,” Hayes said.
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