Wine For Newbies

Wine festivals. They sound like fun, but maybe you’re not ready for one yet. 

Piffle!

Wine festivals are for wine lovers, regardless of experience. The best festivals have plenty of tasting opportunities, as well as seminars where you can hear from winemakers and winery reps and learn about their wines (these seminars almost always involve samples of the wines). 

I’m sure it comes as a huge surprise to people that I’m a big advocate of the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival held each year from roughly the beginning of October through mid-November. In the U.S. (if not the world) it’s the largest and longest. Short of taking a whirlwind tour to all of the world’s wine regions, I cannot imagine how you could possibly be exposed to so many wine regions in such a short time. 

While I don’t want to make this into a sales pitch for the festival (it’s already becoming way more popular than I’d like–I have to work harder to get to the wines now!), I think I’d do you a disservice to not point out some of the things that go on, all for the price of admission (and some pocket cash) to the Epcot theme park.

• Wine Seminars. They must hold eight to ten hours worth of these things every day. The seating is limited to about 50 people, and for the last few years they’ve held them indoors (thank you!). At least you don’t have to wait in the hot sun any longer. Anyway, you sit at long tables with typically four wine samples in front of you. The program lasts about 45 minutes, and the presenter covers the topic, sometimes with helpful PowerPoint slides (sometimes they aren’t so helpful). Besides the wines, there’s usually some kind of literature to take with you for reading later on. I’ve attended seminars to hear about Burgundy, Mumm Champagnes, Nickel & Nickel Cabernet Sauvignons, the Wines of Argentina, the wines of Masi (from Italy), Provenance Vineyards in Napa Valley, the history of Chile’s wine industry, and dozens more. Every single one of them were worth both the wait and the time. I’d attend more if I didn’t want to go on a few rides while I’m there.
• Regional wine bars. In recent years I’ve seen Greece, Argentina, Spain, and Australia set up shop to offer wines from those countries. For a few bucks, you get a couple ounces of whichever wine you want–and you can always come back to try others later on. Moet & Chandon also sets up a wine bar where you can purchase somewhat larger portions of their wares (along with French chocolates). 
• Regional food and wine booths. There must be twenty of these things around Epcot’s World Showcase. Each booth represents a country or a region of the world. Sample-sized portions of the local specialties are paired up with wines, and you can buy as many as you’d like. Poland, China, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Louisiana, India…the list goes on and on. 
• Need more? How about cooking demonstrations? They probably run five or so per day with well-known chefs from around the world. 

Besides these free or low-cost options, this festival also offers paid events like vertical wine tastings, the Bordeaux Wine School, signature dinners, and more. 

Epcot’s festival is not the only one, however. No matter where you live, there has to be a wine festival somewhere within a couple hours drive. Anywhere there’s a decently sized city there are going to be wine fans, and festivals pop up all the time in different places. Just Google “wine festival” and you’ll come up with a long list. 

Even if you can go only for one day, you’ll learn more about wines than you will in several hours of reading web sites like this one or books about wine. The winery reps love to answer questions and tell you about the wines. Don’t be afraid to ask “dumb questions”–someone standing near you probably has the same question. Pick up the literature or whatever else they are handing out to read after you get home. Bring along a pen and small notepad to take notes during the seminars. 

Me, I’m counting down the days until we arrive for the Epcot festival (63 days, 12 hours, 36 minutes and 37 seconds as I write this). I’m looking forward to trying to top 100 wines in our week there. I don’t think I’ll have too many problems–thank goodness most of them will be sample-sized!

If you really want to become more familiar with wines, going for one or more days to a wine festival is really a great way to do it. If you can go each year, it’s even better. I can’t think of a better way to get more bang for your buck. 

Similar Posts:

• Epcot International Food and Wine Festival–Show 61
• Countdown: Four days until Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival
• Epcot International Food & Wine Festival Report, Part 2
• One week, more than 100 wines
• How many bottles of wine???

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