As one of the premier wine and food festivals in the nation and the largest in Southern California, the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival continues to captivate the hearts, minds and mouths of epicures seeking to savor the best in food and drink while schmoozing with power players from America’s prolific gastro-scene. This year’s 11th Annual San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival again culminated with the legendary Grand Tasting Event, this year held on November 22, 2014, which was a magnificent mélange of some of the nation’s most celebrated chefs, local culinary rock stars, renowned winemakers and brewmasters, sommeliers, mixologists, authors and other F&B talents who titillated and satiated the collective palate of more than 10,000 eager event-goers.
As with years past, the famed Grand Tasting Event (this year presented by Kia K900) turned the San Diego’s Embarcadero Marina Park North into an epicurean epicenter where the city’s preeminent chefs and other distinguished culinary masters from around the nation converged with an international showcase of the world’s premiere wine, beer and spirits purveyors to showcase tasty new food and drink trends and innovative techniques. This food lover’s paradise featured no less than 200 wineries, breweries and sprits from around the world, 70 local restaurants plus dozens of gourmet food companies, and an exciting “Chef of the Fest Competition” where San Diego’s best chefs take center stage. The magnitude of culinary talent at this one locale never ceases to amaze.
Grand Tasting spectacular aside, this year’s week-long San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival set out to deliver the most indulgent fête yet. For one, the 7-day experience highlighted San Diego’s vibrant culinary community with over 20 citywide events, wine and cooking classes, chef dinners, and multiple tasting events held throughout the week. These included rare tasting experiences like the highly-coveted tasting of the great Spanish wines of Vega Sicilia’s Unico from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s as well as a First-Growth Bordeaux tasting of all five First Growths of the 1855 Bordeaux wine classification including Chateaux Lafite, Latour, Mouton, Margaux and Haut Brion.
