SPAC Wine and Food Festival

SPAC Food and Wine 2013
My group and I entered the park and were met with exotic cars. We took some photos and then went on to the tasting. The wines I enjoyed were sweet zinfandel and some Rieslings. They had wines from mostly the US, France and Italy. I learned about champagne and how certain wines are aged. The staff was very friendly. I would say the average person was in their 50’s. I give the food 4 stars. Some local restaurants were featuring their most loved dishes. I had waffles with graham cracker and strawberry topping, uniquely-​made shrimp tacos, cheesecake cookies, wild rice salad, southern lima bean salad and many other interesting dishes. Only one hour into this my group and I were getting tired. Great experience.

This is one of the larger wine and food tastings I have been to; two very large tents of food and drink and one smaller tent of jewelry and stuff. I went to the grand tasting (I won tickets, otherwise they were $ 75 a pop). Organization was a little lacking and there were more drunk people there 1 hour after the event started than I normally see after 3 hours at Wine and Dine for the Arts. I’m not sure why they felt music was necessary.
It was mostly Italian wines. I tried some really good wines and some blah wines. I tried some very interesting maple whiskey (it wasn’t really whiskey but it sure was tasty). Druther’s Brewery offered whole sliders (decedent but nothing extraordinary). My mammy was in love with Pie on Wheels and cannot wait to find it again.
There were a lot of interesting cooking seminars going on. They could have used a little more space between vendors (so that people didn’t just pile up on top of each other) and a few more tables for people to sit and rest or enjoy their samplings.
The most awkward part about it had to do with the silent auction. My guests and I were standing at a table tasting something, when two staff people moved the fence right in between us and separated our party so that they could block off the auction tables. We could walk about the entire interior of the tent to meet up, but it was just really really rude. No «excuse me», no «we need to move the fence here», nope… just plunked it down between us.
All in all, I liked it and would go back again.