From humble roots, Wine Amplified festival continues to grow

"It's all about making it approachable to everyone," says Chris Hammond of Wine Amplified, this weekend's festival, which he co-founded with his friend and former co-worker, Sonny Barton, a decade ago. "That's part of the appeal."

In an era of oversaturation, when it almost seems there's always a music festival happening somewhere, to really stand out, you almost have to make your music event about more than just music, which is at least part of the reason Life Is Beautiful has gained so much traction so quickly.

Given this paradigm, it makes complete sense to see an event like Wine Amplified being added to the entertainment landscape. For Hammond, though — who also started Amplified Wines eight years ago with Barton, which produces the Rock 'n Roll Wine brand — creating a lifestyle event is not what the two originally set out to do. It was much simpler than that in the beginning. It was about bringing people together to have fun and drink booze.

The concept was conceived more than a decade ago and started as an informal gathering with just a dozen friends. Hammond, who was in business development at a software company, and Barton, a co-worker in the marketing department, stumbled on the idea of pairing wine with music. Hammond, a burgeoning wine enthusiast, decided he wanted to open a wine bar, and so he put together a business model with plans to obtain his sommelier certification. When he mentioned it to Barton, his friend was instantly intrigued by the prospect, but not even from a business standpoint.

"Sonny was like, 'You know, I'd like to learn a little bit,' " Hammond recalls. "I know nothing about wine. I'm a beer guy. I'd like to learn a little bit more about it."

Shortly thereafter, the two came up with a way for them to explore the world of wine together. They organized an impromptu wine party at Hammond's house, inviting a group of their friends over for an informal tasting. Hammond figured they'd have some fun while he studied the different blends and variations and came up with some lesson plans for the party. From that casual gathering, things quickly grew into more than they had planned.

"I'd blare the music in between wine tastings," Hammond recalls. "Rather than have jazz or anything. I had rules. Ten rules. One was, 'Don't dump it out before you ask your neighbor, if you don't like it' — just kind of funny, little, quirky rules. You know, 'No question is a dumb question.' Stuff like that. And I used to blare the music in between. It really brought the energy up and brought the laughter up and cooked the pretension level down.

"It was just really comfortable for people — in jeans. We had 12 people that first week, and they all told their friends. I had 36, the next Tuesday night, come to my house and do this. We just had to cap it at 36. We went out to Sam's Club and bought tables and stuff like that."

Within no time, the pair ended up moving the tasting to the Arts Factory in the Arts District downtown, where they held the event for a couple of years. At that point, the music component became a little more involved, with Hammond tapping some musicians to add acoustic accompaniment.

"We used to match the wines to the music," Hammond explains. "We figured why this was so popular was the energy from the music. That energy really made people comfortable in drinking the wine and comfortable saying what they liked and what they didn't like, not what some magazine says they should like."

The pairings ended up being picked by popular vote, an approach that carries over today at the pair's winery in Sonoma, Calif., where they produce three varietals. "Sonny and I get really hammered and just sit there and listen to music and decide which songs best matches this one," he reveals. "Our tasting notes on the bottle, we don't suggest a food pairing; we suggest a song pairing. There's no right answer. It's just what we feel matches."

That's more or less how the impetus for Wine Amplified was formed. "We used to match wine to songs," Hammond says. "People would vote on which songs they thought best matched the wine. The loudest cheer, our acoustic guy would rock that out live. So we had a lot of fun, and then we kind of outgrew that."

It was about that time that it occurred to Hammond that perhaps the time had come to, well, amp things up a few notches. That's when the seed for the current version of Wine Amplified really took root.

"One day we were doing an event at what was then the Bellagio Fontana Bar," Hammond remembers. "We had our cover band doing a little wine tasting, and they were playing an Everclear song, which was my favorite band at the time. I listened to the song, and I said, 'You know what we be cool is rather than having some acoustic guys doing an Everclear cover, why don't we just bring in Everclear to play the wine tasting?' And that's what started it."

Next thing you know, Everclear was headlining the event, which by then had moved to Mandalay Bay Beach. Since then, Wine Amplified has grown each year, expanding last year to two days and moving to Las Vegas Village at the MGM Grand. Surprisingly, as with the early days, Hammond and Barton still manage the music side of things themselves, with the help of Chris Baldizan and his staff at MGM Resorts, which partners with the pair for the festival.

"It's difficult," Hammond admits. "It's really difficult, especially in the fall and especially with all the festivals coming up. You know, Life Is Beautiful, obviously, has a lot of amazing bands they're booking. And then you've got Bite of Las Vegas out there, and then you've got the Cosmo you're competing against, as well. So it's a difficult landscape to book, and unfortunately, that drives the prices up a little bit. But we still do it all directly, just talking to agents."

Part of what helped legitimize the event, says Hammond, was booking Blink-182 last year, which was influenced, at least indirectly, by their working relationship with another high-profile act. "Train, they love wine," he points out. "They know what we do. They know we're legit. They make their own wine under their label. They jumped on board pretty quick, so that added a little bit of legitimacy to the event."

Wine Amplified, which featured those two outfits last year at Las Vegas Village, along with Violent Femmes, Michael Franti, Better Than Ezra and the Mowgli's, drew approximately 14,000 people last year, about 6,000 folks on the first night and 8,000 on the second. This year, organizers are hoping for a slightly bigger turnout, with somewhere from 8,000 to 10,000 attendees expected to attend, and of those, 75 percent will most likely be local, compared with 35 percent last year.

Hammond attributes the increase in Las Vegas-based attendees to the festival going on sale later this year, as well as the absence of Blink-182, a band with a following that travels well. Given that sort of ratio, it's worth noting that Hammond and Barton are planning to pour some of their profit directly back into the community, with a portion of the proceeds being directed to Three Square food bank.

As attendance has increased, the event itself has evolved. In past years, for instance, when the event was held at Mandalay Bay, the tasting component was included in the price of the ticket; attendees were provided with a tasting glass and the chance to sample from 30 wineries. When Wine Amplified made the move to Las Vegas Village last year, however, this option was simply no longer realistic.

"When we get so many people," Hammond explains, "and we're going from 5 to 12:30, and you've got 8,000 people in the venue, you just can't, from a safety standpoint and a logistical standpoint, you can't include wine in that ticket."

Well, and there are also a lot more wineries represented from past installments. This year, folks will have the opportunity to try out wines from 80 different wineries, for $2 to $4 a sample or $6 to $9 for full-size glasses.

Oh, and lest it sound like you'll continually have to be digging in your wallet, Wine Amplified is completely cashless, Hammond points out, meaning you can add money to your wristband in advance of the event and not have to give it another thought. Better yet, if folks don't use all of the funds at the event, they'll automatically be refunded the balance, minus a $5 processing fee.

Not a wine enthusiast? Not to worry: Wine Amplified — which this year, features Panic! At the Disco, 50 Cent, Fitz and the Tantrums, Passion Pit, Sublime with Rome, Cold War Kids, Robert DeLong and Andrew McMahon — will offer 20 craft beer options and 25 speciality cocktails, options that reflect Hammond's personal sensibilities.

Despite being an avowed wine connoisseur, Hammond, a native of Kentucky, a place where whiskey practically comes out of the tap, notes that he's an equal-opportunity imbiber. "I will be drinking bourbon Friday and Saturday night at some point in the night," he confirms, with a chuckle. "I guarantee you that. That's a fact. That's my drink of choice. So I make my home state proud."

— Read more from Dave Herrera at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at dherrera@reviewjournal.com.