SoWal Wine Festival Sandestin

SoWal Wine Festival - Sandestin (FL)

Once again we attended the SoWal (South Walton Beaches) Food and Wine Festival - a four-day extravaganza with winemakers, distillers, and mixologists alongside culinary bites by South Walton’s best chefs. More than seventy booths/tables poured over six hundred different labels. 

This was the 39th year for the festival, held again at the Grand Boulevard Center in Sandestin. Once again the festival events spanned four evenings/afternoons of wine, craft brews and distilled spirits with accompanying culinary treats.

Of course, in addition to the food and wine tasting tents on the streets and common areas of Grand Boulevard was the grand Charity Auction in the main tent. 

There was also live music by Nashville Singer Songwriters provided by the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, featuring Aaron Barker, Bridgette Tatum, Clint Daniels, and Dylan Altman, 

Proceeds from the gala South Walton Beaches Wine & Food Festival weekend support Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation, benefiting children in need in Northwest Florida.

To take it all in, capture all three days of the wine festival, Friday through Sunday via the VIP access ticket that includes Bitters, Brews & Bartenders, VIP Tasting, and both Saturday & Sunday Grand Tastings. This ticket excludes Winemakers & Shakers, which is held Thursday evening at Chan’s Wine World Wine Bar in Destin. 

Our Pour Boys wine group came to town and attended the entire weekend event two years ago, featured in these pages in this blogpost - Pour Boys gather for SoWal Wine Festival.

This year’s event seemed to have fewer wine producers as a percentage of booths of wines, beers and distilled spirits, as we focused on the wines served by producers, winemakers, distributors or retail representatives. Perhaps it’s because we missed the VIP tasting on the Friday night. 

There was also a tent featuring food specialities, paired with the featured wines… 

This year there was a special focus on wineries from Oregon’s Willamette Valley Wineries Association with a dedicated tent of a dozen producers pouring over sixty wines.

Being primarily Bordeaux varietal enthusiasts, we found several favorite producers and select labels, although they were a small fraction of the overall event participants. 

Some of the highlights of the producers met and their wines tasted .. 

Fisher Vineyards featured a vintage selection of their Sonoma County Fisher Coach Insignia Cabernet Sauvignon 2016, a label we know well and hold in our cellar going back more than two decades. This is the label that pays homage to the family legacy of the Fisher Coach manufacturing company that was a major supplier to General Motors automobiles. 

 

Titus Napa Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 was served by the producer winemaker Eric Titus. I always appreciate the effort expanded by these folks given the vast number of events per year and the demands on their time running the business, and producing the product over and above marketing and evangelism. 

 

Often, producer’s will pour special offerings typically only available through them directly, at the winery, or through their on-line club offerings. Here is a selection from Whitehall Lane, Napa Valley, and one such label which we acquired to compare with a couple of their exclusive labels that we discovered and acquired at the winery during a visit - Whitehall Lane Cellars Winery Visit and Tasting.

Two labels we missed, perhaps because they weren’t showcased to the general audience, but would’ve been key selections had we known, from producers and labels we know well,  were discovered in the retail pavilion after the event -  

Caymus Special Select from Napa Valley and Tignanello, the original super Tuscan, from two legendary producers - both labels that we hold, but have not tasted from the most recent 2023 vintage being featured. 

A surprise producer and label represented, due to the rare appearance of Rhône valley selections was from a favorite producer, whose labels we hold several vintages dating back several decades - Chateau Beaurenard of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. 

This prompted us to serve a rare vintage selection of their flagship label, from our son’s birth year vintage, at a family dinner, the following weekend back at home.

Chateau Boisrenard Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1990 

The selections featured large global/national brands, as well as smaller boutique individual and family producers. 

One of our favorite labels that we hold in our cellar dating back the legendary two decade …

Domaine Serene pouring their flagship Willamette Valley Evenstad Reserve 2023 

It’s easy to get overwhelmed and lost in all the producers and the vast number of labels being poured, in many case five or six by a single producer, so its important to focus, and be selective in what you’re tasting. It’s more than anyone can really take in in one day, lest succumb to ‘pallete fatigue’. To do it justice requires two or three days, and preparation and planning, if you’re so inclined. 

And of course the complimentary food specialties … 

Great fun for any enthusiast … for an afternoon, or a weekend! 

Pour Boys gather for SoWal Wine Festival weekend in Destin

Pour Boys gather for SoWal Wine Festival weekend in Destin/Sandestin 

Several members of our Pour Boys wine group gathered in Destin (FL) for a festive wine weekend centered on the SoWal (South Walton Beaches) Wine and Food Festival. Our center of activities of wine dinners, swimming, beach walks and pickleball was The Cove, our Destin vacation rental home.

The annual SoWal festival lasts three days from Friday afternoon/evening through Sunday afternoon held on Grand Boulevard in Sandestin (FL) - the schedule and extensive activities are listed on-line here -  SoWal Wine Festival Activities. 

I wrote in separate blogposts in these pages about our wine dinners Thursday (Shiraz with BBQ Ribs at Pour Boys wine dinner), and Friday (Sea Market Crab Cakes anchor wine dinner) at The Cove, then Saturday night when we dined at The Chef’s Table in The Wine Cellar Room at the Wine Bar Restaurant in Destin. 

The festival offers attendees several options, to purchase passes for each day individually, or a VIP Pass that covers the entire event. We purchased the VIP pass but found the Saturday and Sunday events to be redundant with the Sunday event being less crowded and congested than Saturday. Also, several of the ultra-premium wines, which we’re most interested in, ran out on Saturday, and were restocked and brought out again on Sunday. 

An obvious and primary benefit of the VIP pass was access to the VIP Tent on Friday evening, which featured a broad selection of wines and “A Taste of Grand Boulevard” featuring culinary small plates from the local eateries including Emeril’s Coastal, PF Changs, Flemings, Tommy Bahama and others. 

Adjacent the VIP tent was the Wine Auction but it was unclear if or when VIP members were able to attend, a pity given our collective investment in deep broad wine cellars, and in wine and dine events and travel. 

On Saturday, the VIP Tent was transformed to the Culinary Village offering food and sparkling wines but it was closed due to an electrical system overload fire hazard, so we were never able to partake of whatever it had to offer. 

Saturday and Sunday on the Town Center Main Stage, there featured live music on the Nashville Songwriter’s Showcase. Performing each day were Aaron Barker and Bridgette Tatum, the Reeves Brothers and Scott Reeves annd The Casey Kearney Band.

There was a large contingent of volunteers pouring wines, a role we know well having served at the annual UGCB event for the past fifteen years, which has earned our wine group the Pour Boys (TM) moniker. 

The UGC Bordeaux (Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux (UGCB)), annual release tour is put on by the Union, the association of 130+ members of the top premier wine producer estates from the most prestigious Bordeaux appellations. In cooperation with distributors, brokers and merchants they host over 80 events in fifteen countries visiting 65 cities to present their wines to some 50,000 or so professionals and wine lovers each year around the world.

Here is my blogpost of this year’s UGC tasting event -  UGCB 2021 Vintage Release Tour 2024 Comes to Chicago, and earlier years … https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/search?q=UGCB

Aside the volunteer pourers, the event attracted and offered the chance to meet several winemakers and producers and their representatives directly, which is always a highlight, almost as much as tasting the wines!  

There was another tent that featured Wine Tasting Seminars showcasing wines presented by the winemakers, producers or their ambassador representatives. These were subject to limited seating on a first come first served basis. 

The promotions for the event boast “six hundred plus wines presented by and poured by industry insiders”, and the different tastings included wines, as well as craft beers and spirits. 

Finally, there was a Retail Tent which offered for sale many of the wines being poured. We partook of this and each obtained several premium and ultra-premium wines.

For us, highlights of the event included:

Meeting winemakers, producers and their ambassadors …

And of course tasting some old favorites, and discovering some new wines! 

Chef’s Table Dinner at Wine Bar Destin

Chef’s Table Dinner at Wine Bar Destin

Our Pour Boys Wine Group gathered in Destin (FL) for the gala SoWal (South Walton Beaches) Wine Festival weekend. We anchored the weekend from The Cove Vacation Rental in Destin (FL), our vacation beach rental.

Following the Saturday SoWal Wine Festival Activities, we dined at The Chef’s Table in The Wine Cellar Room at the Wine Bar Restaurant in Destin. 

We ordered from the menu and the daily specials prepared by Chef Lawrence. For our wine pairings with the dinner, we brought some special bottles BYOB from our cellars, procured several outstanding bottles from the adjacent affiliated Chans Wine World, and ordered some wine from the Wine Bar wine list. 

Our server for the evening was Madeline, (Maddie), who did an outstanding job serving our group of ten, serving our starters and entrees, and catering to our flight of wines. She was unphased by our serious attention to the wines and managed superbly our wine flight of a half dozen wines, white and red.

For starters we ordered the Roasted Corn and Crab Bisque, the Beet Caprese Napoleon (heirloom tomatoes, roasted red beets, evoo, fresh mozzarella, basil chiffonade and balsamic glaze), and the Wine Bar Wedge Salad with applewood bacon, cherry tomatoes, red onion and blue cheese duo.

For our entree course we ordered the from the menu the Steak Au Povre, Filet of Beef, Filet of Grouper Florentine and the Daily Special Lamb Chops.

Our wine flight was:

Domaine Henri Boillet Puligny Montrachet Mersault 1er Cru 2014

Peter Michael Les Pavots Knights Valley Sonoma County Red Wine 2018

Chateau Clinet Pomerol Bordeaux 2014

Chateau Pape Clement Passac Leognan Grand Cru Classe Bordeaux 2018

Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadow Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2011

Constant Diamond Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

More to follow …