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Popular Trail tradition on hold

The Columbus Day Banquet and Wine Competition has been cancelled this year

A decades long tradition in Trail appears to be in question as the Colombo Lodge’s annual Columbus Day Banquet and Wine Competition scheduled for Saturday has been cancelled.

Numerous calls in the community have resulted in no one willing to go on record as to the reason for the cancellation.

Begun by the Italico Club of Trail years ago, the competition celebrated the art of making wine from scratch that has been practised by many of Trail’s Italian community since immigrating to the area early in the 20th century and which has since been adopted by local residents from many different backgrounds.

The event, which for many years was held in the spring, had attracted crowds of around 400 people, who came from all around the area to sample the fruits of the winemakers labour and feast on the traditional multi-course Italian meal.

For some previous competitions judges had been brought in to taste the local vintages before awarding the highly prized trophies for best in the red and white wine categories for the year.

In more recent times the competition has seen declining numbers but local winemakers still prized the event as an opportunity to share their efforts and compete with each other.

As of press time there is no word on whether or not the competition and banquet will be continued in the future.