The West Coast’s largest wine and food fest, the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival, ended its 12th annual celebration in grand style by partnering with an important wine-related conference called SommCon, to offer participants a series of wine seminars designed for aspiring sommeliers and serious wine enthusiasts.
The San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival launched with a golf tournament and dining experiences ranging from tacos and craft beer to a black and white truffle extravaganza. Cooking classes and demonstrations were sprinkled throughout the week’s activities. The most notable addition to this year’s program was the roster of advanced wine seminars organized to quench the thirst for more than the usual introductory sessions. Although the total program, SommCon, was developed with sommeliers in mind, the workshops were available for purchase as part of the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival.
Thursday and Friday were filled to the brim with sessions conducted by wine world luminaries who shared the breadth and depth of their knowledge and experience to eager audiences. Perhaps no one more notable than George Riedel himself conducted a sold out seminar.
We were among the spell-bound group who not only enjoyed his engaging presentation style but his wealth of information. He presented his premise that the wine glass matters. Mr Riedel led us through a series of participant experiments. We compared and contrasted the same wine in various glasses, with and without food and in fact, the “correct” glass did make a difference.
The Riedel experience was so compellingly that most of us left as believers with glasses in hand to reinforce our research back home.
“The Grand Tasting,” held on Saturday at Seaport Village was a foodie extravaganza. Over 60 of the areas restaurants tempted us with a luscious array of tastes. All manner of tacos, ceviches, pokes and pork preparations were on offer.
Wineries, craft breweries and spirits paired with every taste. Live music and the warm, blue sky—with stunning vistas—provided for an unbeatable afternoon on the bay.Mark your calendars for next November when you too can join the celebration for both the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival and the SommCon conference.
