The 11th annual Westchester Magazine’s Food and Wine Festival was held on June 6-11.
It was a week of wine dinners, a Burger & Beer blast, a Party on the Pier and capping off the week on Saturday afternoon, the Grand Tasting Village which I attended.
The Grand Tasting Village was an outdoor, tented event with scores of booths with wine, spirits and food. There was an additional “VIP” tent with wine upgrades and additional food.
The tasting was held at Kensico Dam Plaza in the village of Valhalla, an upstate suburb about a forty-minute train ride from Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.
As usual, it was a huge event with plenty of drink and food from Westchester restaurants. This year though, I was a little disappointed. Normally in the General Admission section the quality of the wines poured were high for a consumer event. It seems like this year the quality was cut back as there were more off labels being poured than in the previous events. I was particularly disappointed in the VIP tent which could be counted on to pour some nice juice. It felt like they cut back there as well.
To make up for the changes in the wines, the number of spirits available at the festival doubled in size from the previous year, which already was double in size from previous festivals. This year there were copious varieties of different spirits to sample and near the end of the event, those booths became very popular.
It was still an enjoyable event and a fun way to spend a somewhat cloudy Saturday afternoon.
What I sampled in the VIP tent:
| 2020 Caymus Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon | 2017 Caymus Special Selection |
| 2019 Lucienne Smith Vineyard Pinot Noir | 2019 Lucienne Doctor’s Vineyard Pinot Noir |
| 2016 Taub Family Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon | 2017 Talbott Estate Sleepy Hollow Pinot Noir |
| 2012 Ugolini Valle Alta Amarone | 2010 Bertani Amarone |
| 2017 Allegrini Amarone | 2017 Banfi Sumus |
| 2016 Banfi Poggio alle Mura | 2017 Banfi Excelsus |
| 2015 Antico Borgo Taurasi Riserva | 2017 Pio Cesare Barolo |
| 2016 Esprit de Pavie Bordeaux | 2018 Ratti Barolo |
| 2015 Campofiorita Brunello di Montalcino | 2019 Domaine Ott Rose |
| 2019 Catena Chardonnay | 2018 Catena Alta Malbec |
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