Good to put a face to the name in the e-mails was what Pernod Ricard BrandAmbassador Alfredo Del Rio said to Debra Taylor.

Lifestyle, Local Lifestyle, Style, Style Observer, Tuesday Style

February 24, 2015

#SOBEWFF

This past weekend saw the 14th annual staging of the largest food and beverage event of its kind just 90 minutes flying time from Kingston, Jamaica. The 2015 Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF), presented by Food & Wine, consisted of more than 75 different events spanning four days to ensure that there was something for everyone.

My focus, of course, is wine, but there are many events for all culinary and other beverage lovers. So, if you prefer spirits and cocktails, or you are a vegetarian or a meat lover, even if you don’t drink alcohol at all but you love food and like to people-watch, there are events for you.

In 1997, this event was a one-day festival known as the Florida Extravaganza held at the Biscayne Bay Campus of Florida International University (FIU) to raise funds for FIU’s School of Hospitality & Tourism Management.

It was taken over by Lee Brian Schrager, then director of Special Events & Media Relations at Southern Wine & Spirits of America in 2002, relocated to South Beach and renamed South Beach Wine & Food Festival. To date the festival has raised over US$20 million for the school.

The festival grows each year, so with over 60,000 attendees last year one has to plan carefully how to approach the events so you don’t get burnt out or get too drunk. This year I witnessed a patron being evicted from one of the seminars!

The Wines

While hundreds of gallons of wine are poured at the beach under the big tents, there are two sets of events that I focus on, the Wine Spectator wine seminars and Wine Spectator’s Best of the Best event held at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. These events are where the real wines are poured at the festival.

Best of the Best

Wine lovers consider this to be the very best event of the weekend for two main reasons: (1) all the wines being poured here are rated 90 points or higher on the Wine Spectator 100 point scale; (2) only proprietors and winemakers from each winery are invited to pour their top varietals, so you can hear about how some of the world’s greatest wines make it from their vineyards to your palate. Never get there late.

Wine Seminars

Regarded as the high point for serious wine lovers, these seminars are conducted by the owners and winemakers along with senior Wine Spectator writers. Here it is just you and your

pre-poured table of wines in front of you, no waiting, no fighting for wine. Always very educational and enlightening.

Each year, I meet hundreds of new and seasoned wine lovers eager to taste more and learn more. This event is a closed and relatively affordable one and should be on your “must-attend” list.

Christopher Reckord — Entrepreneur

& Wine Enthusiast. Send your questions

and comments to creckord@gmail.com. Instagram: @chrisreckord

Twitter: @Reckord

You never know who youwill run into; IngridWahrmann (left), andDebbie Broderick (right)ran into Top Chefrunner-up Nina Compton.A native of St Lucia, Ninahas trained in French,Caribbean and Italiankitchens. She has workedunder renowned ChefDaniel Boulud and nowlives in Miami where sheworks for acclaimed chefScott Conant.

The glassware you use matters,and Riedel is the world leader inthe world of glass. The companyused the opportunity at SoBe todisplay a range of decanters andstemware including the leadcrystal Grape Series.

Shereene Welsh (right) was handed aparfait from an attendant at theCelebrity Cruises station at the WineSpectator Best of the Best event. Photo at right: Vonria Beckford (left) shared lens timewith Carla Hall, who is a co-host ofABC’s popular lifestyle series TheChew. Hall, is best known as acompetitor on Bravo’s Top Chef, whereshe won over audiences with her funcatch phrase, ‘Hootie Hoo,’ and herphilosophy to always cook with love.Hall is the owner of Carla Hall PetiteCookies, an artisan cookie companythat specialises in creating sweet andsavoury petite bites of love.

A Trimbach representative (left) pours the delicious Pinot Gris for SherylTomlinson. Pinot Gris is one of the most remarkable Alsace grape varieties,combining a full-bodied, heady but dry fruitiness.

Lovers of good food and wine LainsworthWalker and Paula McKay enjoyed sips ofJustin Vineyard Isosceles at the WineSpectator Best of the Best event.

The seminar featured a sit-down tasting of Ste Michelle’s portfolio of exceptional wineries whichincluded the world’s most distinguished growing regions. The featured wines were: 2013 Eroica Riesling,Chateau Ste Michelle & Dr Loosen, Columbia Valley; 2011 Columbia Crest Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon,Columbia Valley; 2010 Northstar Merlot, Walla Walla Valley; 2011 Col Solare Red Wine, Red Mountain;2012 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars CASK 23 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley; 2012 Antica NapaValley, Antinori Family Estate, Townsend Vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley; 2011 AntinoriTignanello Toscana IGT; 2009 Torres Mas La Plana Cabernet Sauvignon DO Penedès and 2010 TorresGrans Muralles DO Conca de Barberà.

Swine to Vine was a pairingseminar hosted by AnthonyGiglio, a writer, educator andraconteur who motivatescountless imbibers to trust theirown tastes and relax the rules.

The educational wine seminars are my favourite events at the festival.In this session, titled “Ste Michelle Wine Estates: A Portfolio of theDistinguished International Wine Estates”, hosted by Wine Spectatorexecutive editor Tom Matthews (second left), attendees were takenon a tasting journey by (from left) Miguel Torres Maczassek, generalmanager of Miguel Torres SA, Ted Baseler, Ste Michelle’s Presidentand CEO and the recipient of the Festival’s Lifetime AchievementAward; and Renzo Cotarella, chief enologist and chief executive ofMarchesi Antinori, the family-owned Italian wine company that hasshaped the wine industry and culture for the past 630 years.

The Jamaica “posse” converged on the Fontainebleau Miami Beach for Wine Spectator’s Best ofthe Best event. We spotted from left: Lainsworth Walker, Paula McKay, Mark Cameron, MaxineHinds, Sheryl Tomlinson, Shereene Welsh, Vonria Beckford and Jacquie McLennon. In front areDebbie Taylor (left) and Debbie Broderick. (PHOTOS: CHRISTOPHER RECKORD)

Melanie Miller (left), working as part of the SoBesupport team, and Select Brands’ Debra Taylor gotcosy with Sacha Lichine, the man behind the wineat Château d’Esclans, producer of the “famous”Whispering Angel, among other wonderful wines.

#SOBEWFF

ALSO ON JAMAICA OBSERVER

Polls

Recent Posts

Archives

Polls

Recent Posts

Archives