Messina Hof winery in Grapevine competes annually at GrapeFest.

Not only does its staff participate in the people’s choice awards, but the storefront also benefits greatly from the foot traffic.

"GrapeFest for us, and I'm sure for many other businesses, is our highest ... intake of revenue for one single weekend throughout the entire year,” General Manager Garrett Gomez said.

Gomez said news of other festival cancellations served as an early indication for what to expect for GrapeFest.

“It was a really big hit of news when the State Fair [of Texas was] canceled, ... [which] is after GrapeFest happens,” Gomez said. "If we're looking kind of chronologically, it was hard for us to imagine that a festival of this magnitude would be able to be pulled off.”


In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Messina Hof has been innovating how it caters to its local customer base.

"We then piloted a lot of different programs to kind of roll with the punches,” he said. “So we are doing virtual wine tastings. ... We are obviously doing curbside pickup, ... and we are also still doing free deliveries in ... a 10-mile radius of Grapevine.”

Ultimately, Gomez said Messina Hoff’s membership program has been a continued source of business while Grapevine’s tourism industry has been slow amid the pandemic.

“We are very grateful to our membership,” Gomez said. "So these are the customers that obviously already know our menu; they've been in and [are] kind of in an effort to support local.”


Messina Hof

201 S. Main St., Grapevine

817-442-8463

www.messinahof.com/grapevine