San Diego Bay WIne & Food Festival 2016 Top Events

Grand Tasting & SommCon The Best Of The Best, Especially For Singles

There are almost as as many smiles as there is wine, a fine pairing in a fun city filled with fun people.

The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival – Nov. 14-20 in 2016 and its always the week prior to Thanksgiving – is the most anticipated event here in the fall, and there’s good reason for it.

But with so many parts to it – there’s nearly 40 events during its week-long run – how does one chose which one (or ones) to attend?

Based on PubClub.com’s experience you can’t go wrong with any of them, but the two ‘must-do” events are SommCon on Friday night and the Lexus Grand Tasting on Saturday afternoon.

There’s a simple reason for this: they are the two biggest events, have the most single people and the most tasting opportunities.

The Tasting At SommCon 2016

This event is Friday, Nov. 18 and is held at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina. The cost is $65. It involves rows and rows of tables offering samples of wine, sparkling wine, plus some really good tequila samples and other spirits.

Plus, there’s a beer station with generous pours and even souvenir glasses.

But it’s really all about the crowd. right? Here, you’ll find a couple hundred people mainly in their 30s to 50s who range from wine experts to those who just want to walk around and sample a lot of the offerings.

The most fun people are often those doing the pouring; they are young, fun and may even meet you out at one of the bars afterward.

The dress code is business casual.

There’s not a lot of food; it’s usually artisan bread and really good cheeses, so be sure and eat before you get to this event. Why not eat afterward? Well, you could but the nightlife of the Gaslamp is just around the corner and you want to keep up all the momentum the wine, beer and spirits have provide dyou up to that point.

But don’t be out too late, for the Grand Tasting starts at noon the next day and you want to be 100% for this event.

Lexus Grand Tasting 2016

If you’re going to just one event, then make it this one. And get your tickets early because it does sell out and then you’re left scrambling to get into it. At $145 it’s not cheap, tho.

It’s held at Embarcadero Park, right on the water and has several hundred people who mix and mingle in the San Diego sunshine from Noon-3 p.m. There are nearly 200 vendors pouring wines, spirits and beer and offering everything to eat from small samples to juicy burgers.

The Grand Tasting is a glutton’s paradise, but it’s also one of the prime singles events of the year. There are single people all over the place, girls in their stylish sun dresses and guys in their Charlie Sheen bowling shirts, gaining liquid courage as the day progresses, building toward a climax of fun.

Think of it as the Del Mar Opening Day of the fall, except with wine and food instead of horses.