Grapevine locals know the Valentine Wine Trail makes wooing your sweetheart a fun-filled day with food, strolling and some wine, taking the guesswork out of planning the holiday. Whether you’re lovebirds, gal pals, or buddies, all you need is walking shoes and reservations to join the trail between 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Feb. 15. The Valentine’s-themed event will highlight Grapevine wineries, where each participating winery supplies a flight with three wines and an accompanying small bite.

“Everybody has a good time doing it,” says winemaker David Besgrove, the wine trail’s chairman. “It’s a Valentine’s thing, so bring your sweetheart out.”

The wine event draws people to historic Grapevine to sample the town’s expanding wine selections. Bull Lion, Cross Timbers, Grape Vine Springs Winery, Landon Winery, Messina Hof Winery, OG Cellars and Sloan & Williams will participate this year, the 12th since the trail’s inception.

“Every winery will do something different,” Besgrove says. “You should have a different experience at each one.”

The proprietor of Grape Vine Wine Cellars, Besgrove opened Grape Vine Springs Winery in 2004 after tiring of the corporate world. Since then, he opened Cowtown Winery in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 2010. 

“I learned how to make wine from someone I worked with,” he said from his Main Street tasting room. “I started making it at home and got pretty good at it.”

The local winemaker sources grapes from California and maintains his production facility in Fort Worth, with tasting rooms in both Grapevine and Fort Worth tourist areas, plus one commercial account in Luckenbach. Part of his business plan includes combining wine with the area’s heavily trafficked sites, and it works. Besgrove produced close to 50,000 bottles last year.

“Grapevine does a good job of drawing people in, and the Stockyards does, too,” he said. “They draw people in from all over the world.”

Known for his semi-sweet fruit dessert wines, Besgrove boasts 30 different wines. The winery, named for the Northeast Tarrant County area called Grape Vine Springs before it was Grapevine, is a nod to the town’s roots. The back label includes the year “1843,” when the area opened for settlement.

“I wanted to be a part of Grapevine, so I tied the wine to the city,” he says.

Winemaking and its science fascinate Besgrove, and the wine walk allows him to share his passion. He also hosts monthly production tours, and each fall, Grape Vine Springs Winery presents Grapevine Ghosts, a haunted walking tour at “the most haunted winery.”

Tickets are already on sale for the Feb. 15 event, which includes a souvenir wine glass for each guest, at GrapevineWineryTrail.com. They’re priced at $60 in advance and $65 the day of the event, if available. The event caps at 750 people.

“It’s a very leisurely day to stroll around,” Besgrove says. “You have all day to do it. You can come to a winery, have lunch and then have some more wine.”

Besgrove assures the day will be romantic. He’s an expert after hosting a couple of weddings at his winery, and while he hasn’t heard of anyone planning a proposal for the wine trail yet, wine has a way of amplifying things.