Wine Over Water

For 22 years, Wine Over Water has been taking place on the Walnut Street Bridge. The event has always been a premier wine and food tasting hosted by and benefiting Cornerstones, Inc.

Taking place Oct. 5-8, 2017, this year marks the addition of multiple events that will take place off the bridge making the shift to a multi-day food and beverage festival highlighting Chattanooga’s culinary scene.

The main event, Wine Over Water, will take place on Saturday, Oct. 7, is presented by title sponsor Atlantic Capital, and will incorporate hundreds of wines as well as local food and music while celebrating passion for history and preservation of Chattanooga.

The festival will start with a five-course wine dinner at St. John’s on Thursday, Oct. 5 and wrap up with a yoga brunch on Sunday, Oct. 8 with other fun events in between.

“We’ve noticed over the years how much Chattanooga’s restaurant scene has changed and grown. When we started Wine Over Water in 1994 there were only three restaurants downtown!” said Ann Gray, executive director of Cornerstones, Inc. “Now is the time to grow this event and highlight all our wonderful chefs and restaurants in this town through other events off the bridge and we couldn’t be more excited.”

Tickets to all events can be purchased at wineoverwater.org and range in price from $75 - $150.

“Over the past 22 years we have been fortunate to raise close to $3 million that has been directly reinvested into the community for historical preservation,” said Gray. “Our organization started at the Waterfront and has played a vital role in making it the center of the city and preservation. We want to continue to maintain that by celebrating the event where the Chattanooga renaissance began so we will always be on the bridge. It also makes sense for us to bring people into the restaurants too though since so many of them are in historic buildings.”

Also new this year is a designated driver ticket to the Wine Over Water event. Tickets are available for $35 to those who wish to attend the wine tasting but not take part in the actual tasting of wine. Instead, ticket bearers will receive a free WOW t-shirt, be able to drink complimentary kombucha from The Local Juicery, still enjoy all the food available for purchase and the samples at no charge, and have a blast with their friends on the bridge.