When spring comes to these parts, food and wine fests pop up like weeds after a pelting rain. They are so plentiful, in fact, that you need a machete to cut through the crappy ones. But there are some that are worth planting into your schedule and even buying a plane ticket for. Here are my choices for your wine fest fun this spring.
FLORIDA
Florida Winefest & Auction
www.floridawinefest.com or 800-216-6199
April 21-24, The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota
Florida Winefest, turning 15 this year, is THE fancy-schmancy fest in central Florida. Plenty of rich folk arrive in grandeur, pay boatloads for in-home winemaker dinners (prepared by local celebrity chefs and poured by winemakers), and hang out at celebrity-hosted food and wine seminars. Although I can’t afford the full purebred splendor, the event feels oh so refined. Proceeds benefit disadvantaged children in local counties. Tickets start at $15 and go up hundreds from there.
Biltmore International Food & Wine Weekend
www.biltmorewineweekend.com or 305-445-8066, ext. 2095
April 29-May 1, The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables
In its ninth ab-fab year, the Biltmore fest celebrates internationally acclaimed Spanish chefs. This is a hoity-toity, highbrow event, featuring 25 South Florida fine dining restaurants and over 30 upper echelon wineries like Mer Soleil, Caymus, Grgich Hills and Antinori. It oozes poshness. Events include a two-hour grand tasting, comedy by Robert Klein and the Spanish chefs’ wine dinner. Tickets start at $40. Proceeds benefit South Florida charities.
GEORGIA
High Museum of Art and Wine Auction
www.atlanta-wineauction.org or 404-733-5335
March 31-April 2, Lenox Square and various locations in Atlanta
THE best and brightest of Atlanta’s wine festivals, this extraordinarily hedonistic event is now in its 13th year. Easily one of the best wine events in the nation, it boasts over 120 first-class wineries, with first-class winemaker dinners and fantastic educational seminars. The amount of money flying at the live auction will make you nauseous, but you should really see it once. Tickets start at $50 and go way up from there. Proceeds benefit the High Museum of Art.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Hilton Head Island WineFest
www.hiltonheadhospitalityassociation.com or 800-424-3387
March 12, Shelter Cove Community Park, Hilton Head
Twenty years and still counting: They’re doing something right over on the Island. Meet the largest outdoor, tented wine tasting on the East Coast, with more than 1,500 domestic and international wines and gourmet fare from Hilton Head Island’s best restaurants. Tickets are a measly $30. Scenery is pretty damn nice too.
NORTH CAROLINA
North Carolina Wine Festival
www.ncwinefestival.com or 336-733-5825
June 11, Tanglewood Park in Clemmons
For a taste of what one region can produce in the way of fermented juice, this is a must-see. With an expected turnout of 30 wineries from the Yadkin Valley AVA, you can taste the native Muscadine grape as well as traditional European varieties like merlot and chardonnay. Best choices are Shelton, Childress, Westbend, Rockhouse and RagApple wineries. Ticket prices haven’t been announced, but last year they were $14.
Recommended Wines
Fogarty 2003 Gewurztraminer Monterey (CA) Smells like honey and launches into a spicy golden applesauce with golden raisins. Luscious honeysuckle on the finish.
Sweetness = 4. $15. 
Estancia 2004 Pinot Grigio California Light, refreshing and dangerous, since it goes down so easily. Loaded with honeydew melon, lime and lemon.
Sw = 2. $15. 1/2
This article appears in Mar 9-15, 2005.
