Southern Cal’s #1 Wine & Food Festival: A Celebration of Taste and Tradition

 

I just love going to wine, beer and food festivals.

They are festive, classy without being conceited and you’ve got something in common with just about everyone there, because you are all there to consume wine and beer (plus, in some cases, spirits) and food from great chefs.

One of the top ones I’ve attended is LA Magazine’s “From the Vine” in the gorgeous canyons of Malibu and the California Wine Festival in Carlsbad, CA. The problem a lot of wine & food festivals, though, is that they are like a college basketball freshman sensation headed to the NBA: One and done. When they conclude, people are always hungry – and thirsty – for more.

That is why the one in San Diego, the annual San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, is the best of  its kind in Southern California.

That’s because it is not simply a single day, but a series of events taking place for several days (the 2011 festival is Nov. 12-20, with most events occurring on Thursday, Friday and Saturday). It is most certainly highlighted by the Grand Tasting, the main attraction on Saturday that takes place on the water’s edge in Embarcadero Park North, behind Seaport Village.  The fact that it’s a 10-minute walk from the Gaslamp is great, as well.

But there are so many other events, it’s almost like a technology Expo. Except instead of keynote speakers and panelists, it has wine, food and beer-tasting classes. I’ll be attending one on Friday, the Belgian Beer Tasting With Pairing, in which high-end beers from Belgium are paired with food. InBev has actually brought in a master brewer and chef to give the hands-on demonstration for this one.

 

There are also tasting seminars, cooking classes, a tasting and auction, parties, and more. In fact, they are too numerous to mention here and instead of listing them all, I’ll just point you to the event’s website.

Yet all that is just the warmup, the appetizer or Happy Hour menu, if you will, for the rest of the festival. Before the first bottle is uncorked on Saturday, there is an awesome party Friday night. Called the Reserve & New Release Tasting and Silent Auction, it’s a start-up social mixer of the highest quality. That is such a great party if one didn’t know, they might be fooled into thinking it is the main event.

 

Yet there’s more, and the main event is terrific. First, there’s the location, in a park right on the water. Second, there’s the event itself, which is full of great chefs providing tasty samples of some of their best dishes, hundreds of wines (700, according to the organizers) being poured, as well as beer.

The Grand Tasting lasts from noon-3 p.m. (VIPs get in at 11.)