Alpen Wine Fest

Alpen Wine Fest is a one-afternoon wine festival held on Labor Day Sunday in The Village at Palisades Tahoe in Olympic Valley, California, and the 2026 edition on September 6 is its 36th. Alpen Wine Fest runs from 2 to 5 PM and is built around a single ticket: the price of admission is a donation to Can Do MS, and it covers an all-inclusive tasting from the participating wineries, a commemorative wine glass, and live music in the village plaza. Tickets were listed at $60.54 at time of publication.

The festival is presented by The Village at Palisades Tahoe together with Uncorked, the North Lake Tahoe wine shop group, which selects the pouring wineries each year. The format is a walk-around tasting rather than a seated event: attendees move between winery tables at their own pace while regional musicians play. The organizers describe the pours as coming from exceptional wineries but do not publish a producer list in advance, so expect the lineup to be confirmed close to the date.

All proceeds go to Can Do MS, a nonprofit that delivers free health and wellness education programs for people living with multiple sclerosis and their care partners, and which says it will serve more than 200,000 individuals affected by MS this year. That charitable structure is why the ticket is framed as a donation. The event is open to all ages, but only guests 21 and over with a valid ID can take part in the wine tasting; younger guests can attend for the music and the village setting.

Olympic Valley sits at roughly 6,200 feet on the west side of Lake Tahoe, and early September is late summer in the Sierra: warm afternoons, cool evenings, and the last weekend of the resort's summer season. Plan for sun at altitude, bring layers for after 5 PM, and note that Labor Day weekend is one of the busiest of the year for lodging around the lake.