Press Releases

Tickets Now on Sale for 20th Annual Taste of Vail Food and Wine Festival

CREATED: 2010-01-05 11:11 AM

Vail, Colo. - January 5, 2010 - Tickets are now on sales for the 20th Annual Taste of Vail food and wine festival, the nation's premier spring food and wine festival, held at several venues throughout North America's most popular mountain resort. This year's event takes place April 8-10 and features more than 30 guest chefs, restaurateurs and sommeliers as well as more than 50 wineries. Over the 20 years of the Taste of Vail, renowned chefs such as San Francisco's George Marrone from Aqua and Traci Des Jardine of Jardiniere, Lee Jeftner of Spago in Beverly Hills and Colorado's own Curtis Lincoln from the Brown Palace Hotel have featured their award-winning dishes alongside Vail's finest chefs.

The 2010 Taste of Vail features the 6th Annual Colorado Lamb Cookoff and Après Ski Tasting, Mountaintop Picnic at 10,350 feet above sea level on Vail Mountain, the Grand Tasting and numerous seminars and showcase dinners. Following are a few highlights of the creative seminars slated for the event:
• Master Sommelier Jerry Comfort from Fosters Group will lead a seminar on Umami. The term represents one of the basic "tastes" sensed by the mouth and is often referred to as savoriness. Comfort will explore this sensation with seminar attendees.
• Speed Dating with Pinot allows seminar attendees to site in small groups with the winemaker and taste wine that usually is not available for commercial purchase. Every ten minutes, the groups shift to the next winemaker to ask questions and taste more wine. The event ends with a 30-minute panel discussion and open forum.
• Wine 201 is a double blind tasting seminar where attendees are given wine in a black coffee cup so they cannot discern some of the color and visually distinguishable characteristics of the pour.

Ticket prices begin at $4 for the Colorado Lamb Cookoff or attendees can purchase a $60 all-you-can eat and drink wristband for the competition. The Mountaintop Picnic is $120 with tickets for the Grand Tasting $175.

All proceeds from the Taste of Vail benefit local non-profit organizations in the Vail Valley such as the Red Ribbon Project, Boarder to Boarder, Food Banks of Eagle County, Shaw Regional Cancer Center, Eagle County Hospice, Jazz Goes to Schools, and the Vail Valley Youth Foundation to name a few.

For more information or to purchase tickets for the 20th Annual Taste of Vail, please visit www.tasteofvail.com or call 970-926-5665.

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Media Contact:
Kristin Yantis, Malen Yantis Public Relations, (775) 351-7904, kyantis@myprco.com