Cecily Upton at her restaurant Friends & Family in downtown Portland, where she is wine director. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer When sommelier and Wine Wise owner Erica Archer was preparing to launch the first Portland Wine Week in 2018, she had an epiphany. WHAT: Portland Wine Week WHEN: June 10-16 (full schedule available at portlandwineweek.
me ) WHERE: Various Portland locations TICKETS: Prices vary for sub-events, available online Portland Wine Week celebrates local food, award-winning restaurants and the city’s diverse selection of quality wine in a weeklong series of brunches, lunches, dinners, tastings and “wine sails” on the 74-foot sailboat Frances. This year, the week will feature at least 36 Women in Wine-themed sub-events – highlighting wines produced by female winemakers or talks by a woman wine professionals – the most female-centric content it’s offered to date. Organizer Erica Archer said the Portland Wine Week event has grown between 20% and 35% every year since it was launched.
She expects the event’s biggest attendance ever this year – with plenty of visitors from away – because the Maine Office of Tourism recently awarded Wine Wise a grant allowing it to market the event nationally. “It really means a lot to us to have the state behind Portland Wine Week to help us elevate the quality of the wine scene here, and the quality of what the restaurants do, to a national level,” Archer said “When I was writing everyone’s names down .