The Natchez Festival of Music is bringing a special treat once again to the Miss-Lou — an evening of wine tasting, cabaret and a dinner at The Eola Hotel. Last year our event, held at Brandon Hall Plantation, was a major success.

This important event honored Buzz Harper and Les Wisinger’s return to Natchez and drew many out of town notable guests, some arriving in corporate jets and helicopters.

The evening brought in donations of over $25,000 to help underwrite the expenses of the May Festival of Music.

This year we honor Hedy Boelte and Jennifer Ogden in recognition of their efforts in creating the Natchez Arts Commission, the focus of which is the further development of all the arts in Natchez.

If you love fine wine, fine food and fine music, you simply can’t miss this unique event.

Entitled “An Evening in Three Sets,” it’ll be at 6 p.m. Sunday, April 1. And it’ll be the perfect way for you to spend a lovely Sunday evening in spring.

It’s a rare event in Natchez that allows you to sample over 15 different wines and spirits for a set price and under the same roof!

The magnificent lobby and ballroom serve as the perfect backdrop to the delight you’ll experience inside.

We’ll have a cross-section of several wineries each with someone to discuss the grapes and the food to pair with them.

Delicious food will be there to complement many of the wines and spirits provided by restaurants and caterers from the greater Natchez area.

At approximately 6:15 p.m., the marvelous Cabaret Artist Jason Weber from Palm Springs will tickle the keys and sing songs you select for the duration of the Wine Tasting.

During the course of the patron dinner he will perform two additional sets which will include a few selections from the talented tenor John Tsotsoros, who thrilled audiences last May and will again this season in My Fair Lady and Falstaff. Fine music doesn’t get any finer than this!

Following the wine tasting and cabaret, patron ticket holders will proceed to the 8 p.m. dinner put together by chefs Regina Charboneau and Monmouth’s Jeff Decker.

They have planned a four course dinner “A Taste of Natchez” consisting of crawfish-corn chowder by Monmouth, baby blue salad by High Cotton, smoked prime rib with apple-bacon-port demiglace with white truffle mashed potatoes and yellow squash stuffed with smoked tomato coulis by Kings Tavern and Charboneau and Decker, and Bruschetta by Pearl Street Pasta. For dessert is baked chocolate in cinnamon-brown sugar crust topped with bananas foster by the Dutch Ann Pie Company and Charboneau.

This fabulous dinner will be served with Trinchero Family Select Cabernet and Chardonnay from California and of course a full bar for those that wish.

The cost of this gala will be only $60 per person or $100 per pair for the wine tasting and concert. And for the addition of the patron dinner the full cost is $135 per person or $250 per pair.

And I don’t want to forget to tell you that we’ll be having an enjoyable live auction during the patron dinner.

So hurry up and make your reservations soon before we sell out. Sundays in spring don’t get much better than this!

Paris Winn is a Natchez resident.