We’re finally back from ten days at Walt Disney World. For us, the highlight was the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. Now in its 14th year, it is the longest and largest food and wine festival in the world. The festival features 35 food and wine booths all around Epcot’s World Showcase. Each of the booths offers samples of food and wines (or beers) from the hosting country. The samples can be had for a few bucks each, and they are a great way to experience the cuisine.
Besides the food and wine booths, Epcot’s festival includes a wine bar at its welcome center, along with a large number of seminars, special dinners, food and wine pairings, and more.
In addition to the Festival, Walt Disney World offers visitors the opportunity to experience a huge number of wines. During the five days the festival ran while we were there (we caught it at the end), I was able to sample 68 wines. Notably, after the Festival was over, I was still able to sample enough wines to bring the grand total to 104–an average of ten wines a day. Not bad for a casual effort!
There are a couple of tricks to hitting these kinds of numbers. First, Catherine and I would typically each get a different wine at one of the food booths. That doubled the numbers pretty quickly. We also followed that strategy when we dined at some of our favorite restaurants. Another factor was attending the Party for the Senses–a Saturday night event with dozens of wineries and chefs offering samples of their art.
This year’s trip also brought a nice treat–a quick view of Remy (from Ratatouille) entertaining guests at the Chefs de France restaurant. Unfortunately, I could only get a few seconds of video.
This year’s trip also brought some inspiration for a new project. I’m not releasing any details at this point, but rest assured, it’s going to be fun.
