DC Food and Wine Festival

I went to the DC Food and Wine Festival this past Sunday and left generally satisfied. It was my first since the summer Virginia wine festival, and needless to say, this was dramatically better. Rather than a full review here are a few thoughts from the day:

The Ronald Reagan International Trade Center was an incredible venue for the festival. The main atrium was a stunning place to sample wines in; while the outer rooms provided much needed space. The expo probably could’ve used an extra room since the crowds were large and the lines sometime three deep, but holding it at a venue like the Convention Center would’ve been way too large and lacked the character the Reagan Center had.

This might have technically been the Food and Wine Festival, but it was really a wine festival with a couple snacks. The festival had a few food demonstrations (including Hook’s Barton Seaver on Saturday), but in terms of sampling there were a rare group worth trying, including one of the olive oil stands, the specialty vinegar stand, and a chocolate shop. That part was especially disappointing since friends that have gone in past years saw Anthony Bourdain, Roberto Donna and other celebrity chefs. Alas, at least the chocolate shop was cool. With 22 unique flavors they were jammed the whole day giving out samples like Japanese Wasabi, Grapefruit, Sea Salt and Pepper, Mango, and one chocolate with cayenne pepper that was disturbingly spicy. No doubt delicious and the culinary highlight of the day.

On the whole the wine was (at best) average, but I’m coming to realize that’s sort of the point here. There were about 150 wineries represented, roughly half American and half a mix of Italian, French, Argentinian, Chilean and a few others. The majority of wines on display retailed for roughly $8-$16 and were almost uniformly from well-known sellers, many you’d recognize in a basic liquor store. Sampling wines we already knew was a little boring, although it was definitely helpful for future purchases. Even though many were old news, I always enjoy tasting wineries' entire lines since it helps me learn the (sometimes) subtle differences between each wine.

It’s hit or miss whether people contain their liquor at these kinds of functions. Any event where you combine a thousand people with a wine glass, a limited amount of time, and hundreds of bottles of wine, you’re asking for an intoxicated affair. To be honest, this was a more restrained group than the summer vinofest, but there were still plenty of people who were barely walking out; the little slices of bread provided simply did not cut it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, unless you were next to one of the especially drunk ones.

Outside of a few standouts, the consensus seemed to be that finding a vendor who poured large glasses (as opposed to the four drops at some!) was the best bet. After getting a few drops from each different wine, they generally tasted the same everywhere anyway, so why not find a larger pour.



There were a few standouts and they were quite good. Our favorites were the Argentinians, including the wines from Luigi Bosca and the Trapiche winery’s Malbec aged in an oak cask, as well as a Chilean merlot called Marques de Casa Concha from the Concha y Toro winery. At $20 that wine might not be an outstanding buy, but it was one of the few clear standouts from the day.

While I would've much preferred a wine and food festival with actual food options, this was all in all a successful day and I'd definitely consider going back in future years.