Walk down Main Street any evening in early September and you can feel the setup starting. Tents go up near Peace Plaza. The Observation Tower catches the late sun. If you have lived in Grapevine for even a few years, the rhythm of the festival is muscle memory by now. This year's edition, though, is not the GrapeFest you attended in 2018 or even 2023. The 40th anniversary quietly reorganizes the whole event around a bigger idea, and it is worth understanding before you buy your tickets.
The math that tells the real story
The festival began in 1987 as a one-day event with six Texas wineries. What began as a one-day event featuring six Texas wineries has grown into an internationally recognized wine festival welcoming 250,000 attendees annually. That is a useful number to sit with. It means the population of Grapevine hosts something like four times its own residents inside four days, along a stretch of Main Street you can walk end to end in about fifteen minutes.
For scale, GrapeFest is one of the Top 10 Wine Festivals in the U.S., earning the #7 spot in the USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice Awards. The festivals ranked around it typically run in Napa, Sonoma, or the Finger Lakes. GrapeFest gets there without a single commercial vineyard inside city limits, which is the small miracle the anniversary is really celebrating.
The 2026 theme, and why it matters this year
GrapeFest returns September 17, 18, 19 and 20 to Historic Main Street for its 40th annual celebration, honoring the stories, people and places that have shaped the world of wine with the theme Connecting Wine Traditions, One Glass at a Time.
That phrase is doing more work than the average festival tagline. In past years the International Wine Experience was a supporting act to the Texas-focused People's Choice sessions. In 2026 the organizers pulled the international program forward and tied it directly to Grapevine's Sister Cities:
- Krems, Austria — expect Grüner Veltliner and Riesling from the Wachau region
- Barossa, Australia — the Shiraz country most Texans have read about but rarely tasted side by side with Texas Tempranillo
- Parras de la Fuente, Mexico — home to Casa Madero, which most wine lists in DFW never carry
The International Wine Experience sponsored by Gaylord Texan Resort will take guests on a journey around the world through a curated selection of wines from renowned regions and Grapevine's international Sister Cities. Festivalgoers can explore wines from Grapevine Sister City regions including Krems, Austria; Barossa, Australia; and Parras de la Fuente, Mexico. For residents who have already worked their way through the Texas High Plains AVA at ten previous GrapeFests, this is the new material.
The People's Choice Classic, in plain English
The cornerstone Texas event has not changed its format, but a lot of first-time attendees still misunderstand what it is. GrapeFest continues to celebrate the passion and traditions of Texas winemakers through signature experiences including the People's Choice Wine Tasting Classic sponsored by Audi Grapevine, the Largest Consumer Judged Wine Tasting Competition in the Nation, exclusively featuring Texas wines.
Two things worth knowing before you buy a session:
- The wines are poured blind. You are scoring based on what is in the glass, not the label you recognize from H-E-B.
- Across ten 90-minute sessions, you'll sample Texas wines in categories from dry whites to bold reds, delicate rosés to rich blends, and cast your vote for the best. Opt for a VIP People's Choice session and enjoy limited-capacity tastings that offer a more intimate wine experience, plus a souvenir glass and wine guide to help you navigate the flavors.
The VIP sessions historically sell out first. If you want one, the practical move is to buy them the week they go on sale rather than the week of the festival.
A four-day plan that actually respects your calendar
Most locals do not do all four days. They pick two. The published hours make the decision easier than it looks:
| Day | Hours | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, Sept 17 | Opening | Wine-focused adults, lightest crowds |
| Friday, Sept 18 | 11 a.m.–11 p.m. | Sister City tastings before the after-work rush |
| Saturday, Sept 19 | 11 a.m.–11 p.m. | Full experience, expect peak crowds |
| Sunday, Sept 20 | 11 a.m.–6 p.m. | Families and the GrapeStomp finals |
Hours are drawn from the festival's general information page, where Friday, September 18: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. – Paid admission after 5 p.m. Saturday, September 19: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. – Paid admission · Sunday, September 20: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. – Paid admission. The Friday-before-5 window is the underused loophole. You can walk the artisan market and get an early International Wine Experience pour without a wristband.
The Urban Wine Trail is the second festival
Here is the piece most weekend-visitor guides miss. The Urban Wine Trail tasting rooms sit inside the festival footprint. Your GrapeFest wristband does not include their pours, but the rooms stay open, and the sommeliers behind those bars are the same people pouring at the tents outside. If the tasting tent for a winery you loved runs out of a limited release, walk into their room.
Grapevine's expanding Urban Wine Trail is a collection of nine winery tasting rooms located within close proximity of one another, many in Grapevine's Historic Main Street District. The ones worth knowing by name if you do not already:
- Messina Hof, inside a replica of the 1891 Wallis Hotel, with a balcony that overlooks the festival street
- Cross Timbers Winery, housed in the 1874 Brock Family farmhouse, which sits a bit off Main and gives you a quieter reset when the crowd thickens
- Landon Winery, the DFW-known label whose Grapevine room has grown into an Urban Wine Trail anchor
- Bull Lion Winery, the Italian-varietal room just off Main on College Street
- Grape Vine Springs, small footprint, known for the Night Watchman Ghost Tour on weekends
- Sloan & Williams, pet-friendly patio, flatbreads and tapas that solve the mid-afternoon food problem
Bull Lion specializes in old-world Italian varietals made with 100% Texas-grown grapes — think Sangiovese, Super Tuscan, Trebbiano and a skin-contact style called the Texican. The tasting room is tucked just off Main Street on College Street, and the entrance is a little hidden, which adds to its charm and gives it a genuine hidden-gem quality. That description reads like a marketing line, but the "hidden entrance" note is accurate and the reason many first-time visitors miss it.
Food is the sleeper category
The festival food stalls are fine. What most residents do not use enough is Harvest Hall. The biggest building on Main Street, which anchors the far end of historic downtown, is a massive reimagining of a train station. Enter through Harvest Hall, the food hall facing Main Street, and explore bites from a few favorite North Texas restaurants, including Dock Local and Brisket Rules. There are plenty of wines to enjoy on the massive outdoor patio. If you keep walking, you'll see the Observation Tower up 150 feet in the air and eventually hit Hotel Vin.
Harvest Hall is the reset. When you have had three tasting pours and need a real plate before the next flight, walk the length of Main to the Grapevine Main Station end, eat, then work your way back. The tower is climbable, and the view of the festival from 150 feet up is the photo most residents somehow do not have on their phones.
If you want a sit-down evening instead, Tabla Indian Restaurant opened its Grapevine location this past March in Grapevine Station at Northwest Highway and Texan Trail. It is close enough to walk from the festival's western edge and different enough from the festival food to feel like a real dinner. The kitchen leans Indian with Thai and Indo-Chinese cross-pollination, which is a departure from what most of downtown offers.
The GrapeStomp, the Cork Shoot, and the parts that make it feel like Grapevine
The signature side events return. Guests can test their grape-crushing skills at the famous GrapeStomp and aim for the prize at the Champagne Cork Shoot-Off. The event will also feature live music, local chefs and vendors, kid-friendly rides, games, and activities.
The GrapeStomp finals on Sunday afternoon are the single event most worth watching if you have never seen it. Two-person teams, one stomper and one "swabby," race the clock in half-barrels of grapes. It is genuinely funny, family-appropriate, and takes forty minutes.
The Champagne Cork Shoot-Off is sponsored by Texas Gun Experience, which tells you everything about the Grapevine sense of humor about itself.
Practical notes for people who live within ten miles
- Parking: The Cotton Belt lots and the garages near Grapevine Main Station fill by late morning on Saturday. If you can walk, bike, or get dropped, do it.
- Wristbands: Buy in advance online. The gate lines on Saturday afternoon are the single most avoidable inconvenience of the weekend.
- Wine glass logistics: The souvenir tasting glass fits in a standard cup holder. Bring a small tote for it and any bottles you buy on the trail.
- Sunday morning: Cross Timbers opens quiet with a Viognier pour that is a much better hangover recovery than the coffee line at any Main Street cafe.
- Kids: The KidZone is genuinely engineered for kids, not tolerated by the festival. Sunday is the day to bring them.
The 40th anniversary is not a nostalgic retread. It is the year GrapeFest is making its clearest argument yet that Grapevine belongs in a conversation with Krems and Barossa, and that the wines poured on Main Street the third weekend of September stand up to that comparison. If you have skipped the last few years because it felt like the same event, this is the one to return to.
For readers considering a move into Grapevine, or wondering how a home near the Historic Main Street District fits into a long-term plan, Sophie Tel Diaz Real Estate offers a complimentary home valuation and neighborhood consultation for buyers and sellers across Grapevine, Colleyville, Southlake, Keller and Trophy Club.
