{"id":245537,"date":"2012-11-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/wine-food-fest-brings-libations-to-the-bay\/"},"modified":"2012-11-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T08:00:00","slug":"wine-food-fest-brings-libations-to-the-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wine-food-fest-brings-libations-to-the-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"Wine & Food fest brings libations to the bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

High-profile event also serves as scholarship program for culinary arts<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Kai Oliver-Kurtin | SDUN Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Wine
From the 2010 Festival Grand Tasting (Photo by Joey Hernandez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ninth annual San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival is expected to draw more than 10,000 people to Downtown between Wednesday, Nov. 14 and Nov. 18. The largest of its kind in Southern California, the festival offers wine tastings, cooking classes, wine pairing meals and culinary cook-offs.<\/p>\n

Last year over 300 wines and 70 eateries participated in the festival. Over 30 events will be featured, including the signature Grand Tasting event at Embarcadero Marina Park North on Nov. 17. The tasting serves as the festival\u2019s finale, and will feature over 170 wine labels, 70 chefs, 30 gourmet food companies, live entertainment and the \u201cChef of the Fest\u201d competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach year the content stays the same, like the grand tasting and reserve events, but the culinary and wine education lineup changes with different sommeliers and chefs,\u201d said Festival Co-producer Michelle Metter.<\/p>\n

For wine collectors and connoisseurs, The Vault: Reserve Wine Experience and Silent Auction on Friday, Nov. 16 boasts fine wine from 160 wineries, and silent auction items including large format bottles, libraries and decanters. Held at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina, auction proceeds will benefit the American Institute of Wine & Food (AIWF) culinary arts scholarship programs.<\/p>\n

For a more informal evening, SWISH: Serious Sips & Urban Eats at Fifty Seven Degrees will include a food voucher for purchases made from the outdoor food truck block party on Nov. 14. Formerly held at a nightclub, the event will feature tastings from 25 wineries and breweries.<\/p>\n

Closing out the festival on Nov. 18, the Wine Spectator\u2019s Celebrity Chef Luncheon will bring together renowned chefs from across the country to prepare a six-course lunch for attendees at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina. Each course is paired with wine from one of 15 wineries. A live auction featuring over 25 wine lots will fund culinary and enology scholarships through the AIWF and Chaine des Rotisseurs.<\/p>\n

To date, the festival has awarded over $205,000 in scholarship funds, typically ranging in amounts of $1,000 – $5,000 each. Depending on the number of applicants, there are usually about 10 scholarships awarded per year.<\/p>\n

As a previous scholarship recipient, Lisa Redwine is now the director of restaurants and beverage operations for the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club, The Shores Restaurant and The Marine Room. Redwine is the second woman in San Diego to be accredited advanced sommelier status and is on her way to becoming a master sommelier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scholarship was the starting point of where I\u2019m headed,\u201d Redwine said. \u201cIt enabled me to go to the Culinary Institute of America where I found a very clear path to my career. I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today without that scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her current role, Redwine is tasked with keeping the beverage programs at each of the properties she is responsible for current and up-to-date with popular trends, as well as on par with their culinary counterparts. In addition to her busy career, she has continued her involvement with the festival and will be testing the quality and integrity of wine served during classes at the San Diego Wine & Culinary Event Center.<\/p>\n

When they established the festival, Metter and fellow co-producer Ken Loyst thought San Diego could benefit from the tourism that a wine and food festival would bring to the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichelle and Ken do an amazing job at cultivating the curiosity and exploration of new wines,\u201d Redwine said. \u201cThe festival is an especially great showcase for boutique wines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their hunch was also correct, as approximately 35 percent of today\u2019s festival attendees are out-of-town guests.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople keep coming back to San Diego from all across the U.S.,\u201d Metter said. \u201cThe festival is an amazing tasting opportunity to try some of San Diego\u2019s best restaurants and discover new wine, some from boutique wineries that isn\u2019t available on the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information and to purchase tickets visit sandiegowineclassic.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

High-profile event also serves as scholarship program for culinary arts By Kai Oliver-Kurtin | SDUN Reporter The ninth annual San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival is expected to draw more than 10,000 people to Downtown between Wednesday, Nov. 14 and Nov. 18. The largest of its kind in Southern California, the festival offers wine […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Wine & Food fest brings libations to the bay","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}