About Us

We Love Wine. We Love Fun. But We Especially Love Supporting Local Nonprofits.

While we enjoy raising a glass of delicious wine, what we’re really all about is raising money for local non-profits. At nearly 35 years old, we’re the nation’s second-longest-running non-profit wine festival, proving that when people come together over great wine, great things happen.

Through the generous support of our sponsors, supporters and ticket holders, we’ve proudly poured $8 million into 35 non-profit organizations across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Impressive, right?

We’re Just Like Wine: Getting Better with Age

The Cincinnati International Wine Festival was founded in 1991 by industry legend and wine enthusiast Russ Wiles, then the President of Heidelberg Distributing. He envisioned creating an event that would bring together thousands of wine lovers—from longtime enthusiasts to brand-new fans—with proceeds benefiting local nonprofits.

With the help of founding partner—and first beneficiary—WGUC, the Cincinnati International Wine Festival was created, fulfilling Russ’s dream. Today, the CIWF raises funds and distributes grants to arts, education, and health and human services nonprofits in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. So far, we have raised $8 million for local nonprofits!

Here are some highlights through the years:

1991

The first Cincinnati International Wine Festival was held at the Omni Netherland Plaza, featuring two grand tastings and pouring about two hundred wines for 800 attendees.
1992

This was the very first year the CIWF held a competition, in which local and regional experts judged the wines. Additionally, the very popular Thursday winery dinners began [link]. This year also saw the first live wine auction, which has evolved into the Wine Festival Auction & Luncheon [link] we host today.
1993

We offered more cooking classes, dinners, seminars, and plenty more wine. The three-day festival included 11 "Cooking with Wine" seminars led by CIWF board member Marilyn Harris, the host of the popular radio show "Cooking with Marilyn." The number of attendees doubled from 1992, bringing together more than 1,600 people to enjoy the wine- and food-filled weekend.
1994

The wine festival outgrew the Omni Netherland Plaza and moved to what is now the Cincinnati Convention Center.
1995

The Cincinnati International Wine School began in 1995 as an introductory training program for servers and retailers who want to enhance their wine knowledge. At this point, the festival donated more than $750,000 to five non-profits, to whom we still provide grants to today: WGUC, Cancer Family Care, The Linton Music Series, The Freestore Foodbank and CISE.
1999

The wine festival flourished for several years and became a popular Cincinnati event. This year, the CIWF debuted private-labeled wines exclusive to the Cincinnati area from Wente Vineyard, which still participates in the festival today!
2001

We hosted our first-ever golf tournament, which today is known as "The Russ Wiles Memorial Golf Tournament."
2002

More than $124,000 was granted to 11 local non-profits this year, bringing our total contributions to more than $1 million.
2003

Sadly, at age 64, our founder and cheerleader, Russ Wiles, passed away after a two-year battle with cancer. "Russ had a true passion for all aspects of the wine business," said Al Vontz III, co-chairman of Heidelberg Distributing. "His rapport with both suppliers and customers is legendary." Connie Wiles, Russ's widow, became the Board President and took on the role of growing the festival in his honor.
2006

We granted $265,000 to 25 non-profits, bringing our total non-profit contributions to over $2 million.
2009

This year, we established the general event format that we have today: Winery Dinners on Thursdays, Grand Tastings and VIP access on Friday and Saturday, and the Wine Festival Auction & Luncheon held on Saturday morning.
2010

The wine festival surpassed $3 million in total donations to more than 30 non-profits!
2011

We celebrated the CIWF's 20^th anniversary with two high-profile honorary chairs: Gina Gallo and Jean Charles Boisset.
2012

The International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) honored the wine festival during their 57th annual conference with six prestigious Pinnacle Awards, an international competition that recognizes top wines and wine professionals through a blind judging process.
2015

We celebrated our 25th anniversary, reaching a total of more than $4 million in non-profit donations!
2017

We exceeded $5 million in grants to more than 50 non-profits in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area.
2018

In this year alone, we donated more than $400,000 to 35 local non-profits. This was also a heartbreaking year for the wine industry, as wildfires spread throughout the Napa Valley and Sonoma County. This devastation affected so many wineries and wine lovers close to the wine festival. To give back to those who had given the wine festival so much, we donated $60,000 through a Community Matching Gift Challenge to the Napa and Sonoma Community Relief Efforts.
2019

More than 6,000 people from 35 states contributed to this year's donation total of $406,000. This bumped our grand total to over $6 million granted to our local beneficiaries!
2020 & 2021

The 2020 and 2021 festivals were set to be record-breaking years, with 2020 marking 30 years of "giving back one glass at a time." Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all events aside from the intimate winery dinners had to be cancelled.
2022

After a two-year hiatus, the festival returned to the Cincinnati Convention Center and the Hilton Netherland Plaza.
2024

We hosted a record ten winery dinners. Plus, we awarded $312,000 to 35 nonprofits!
2025

We temporarily moved the Grand Tasting to the Freestore Foodbank Community Resource & Distribution Center while the Cincinnati Convention Center was under construction. We raised $345,000 for non-profit.
2026

This will be our 35^th anniversary year. We're anticipating our best festival yet and adding to the $8 million we've donated to worthy organizations. With your support, we hope to be “Doing good and having fun” for decades to come.