This year’s Boston Wine Expo: Attendees pledge to drink wine by the gallon, in sickness and in health

As Matt mentioned in his Sunday morning post, we attended the 17^th Annual Boston Wine Expo this past Saturday afternoon, where we participated in a Grand Tasting that included well over 400 wineries and 1,800 varieties of wine. While wandering around the Seaport World Trade Center, we were able to sample from an array of delectable domestic and international wines, take some pictures of the event, and film a few of the exhibitors who were nice enough to speak with us that day. All and all, I think we gathered a lot of great info to share with everyone at the Pressing Matters blog.

So where do I begin? Well, what I think would be more beneficial (particularly for those who weren’t able to attend this weekend) is to start with a wrap-up of the event. I’ll move on in subsequent posts to the individual U.S. wineries and vineyards that we learned more about while at the Expo. Seeing as Matt and I only attended Saturday’s tasting and weren’t able to sit in on any of the seminars, I’ll also link to a few other blogs to give you a more complete recap of the hectic event. See here for a review of Kevin Zraly’s half-hour seminar that took place on Saturday and Sunday, and here for the experience of someone who attended the event as a consumer one day and a volunteer the next.

I don’t mean to give the impression that the Boston Expo wasn’t worthwhile or entertaining to be at, but with over 15,000 people reportedly attending over the course of two days, there is no way to explain the event as anything BUT hectic. While some attendees quietly battled to get a sip or two of the most coveted wines in the room, it was clear by the end of the afternoon (and from this tale of vomit-mangled bathroom stalls) that other Grand Tasting participants were a little less discriminating in the wines that they chose to sample. See below for a few crowd shots that we were able to take on Saturday:

You can blame the young crowd, or the fact that some may have wanted to get their money’s worth out of the event, but I think that most people just aren’t sure how to react when faced with that much flowing wine. It’s tempting, to say the least. The strategy that worked best for me was this: I would peruse the eight aisles of wines available, take a few sips along the way, and then break to one of the outside aisles to sample a few of the foods and cheeses on display. Then I would stock up on free water bottles. I owe my college years for teaching me the importance of hydrating when drinking leisurely and/or competitively (which is what the mood in the hall felt like at some points during the day).

The Expo also featured a handful of celebrity chef demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday. The stages were set up adjacent to the wines aisles, so I managed to catch a few minutes of each of the shows on Saturday, which all ran about an hour apart. Below are photos of the weekend’s chef lineup (on Stage One) and an engaged audience at one of the shows:

There were a few “meet and greet” the winemaker presentations as well. We didn’t get a chance to visit the Grand Cru Wine Lounge, the pricier wine tasting affair that featured wines retailing for $50 a bottle or higher. There were complaints about the staggered tastings implemented in the lounge this year, which created longer lines in an area that is meant to be less crowded. Attendees had to pay nearly $200 for their tickets, so I can understand why they would expect a seamless tasting. This entry from A Passionate Foodie blog and a discussion on ChowHound offer some more input on the Grand Cru Wine Lounge this year, as well as some opinions on the 2008 Expo in general.

From what I’ve been reading in blogs across the internet, people also seemed to love Gary Vaynerchuk at this event. I discovered Gary’s video blog a few months back, but for those of you who don’t yet know about the outspoken host of Wine Library TV, click here for an introduction. Gary usually tastes a few wines every episode and posts about five episodes a week on the site. What I find most appealing about Gary is his genuine, unaffected interest in wine (what other wine critic would take the time to review Trader Joe’s Two Buck Chucks?) and his desire to spread this interest to as many people as possible. Maybe it’s because I don’t know all that much about wine myself, but the fact that a web personality like Vaynerchuk was so well received at the Boston Expo makes me feel as though I might have belonged there too. With close to 2,000 different kinds of wine in the room, what better place is there to learn about the industry and its unique varietals?

I personally tried a wider range of reds than ever before, and I got to indulge in a few Rieslings that are generally too sweet to appeal to an entire room full of party goers, so I was happy with the time I spent in Boston.

We’ll be posting a few more photos later on in the week, as well as some information about the U.S.-based exhibitors that we spoke with at the Expo, but be sure to skim through Boston.com’s photo gallery for a slew of other pictures from the event too. In the spirit of this year’s Wine Expo, and the debauchery that was had by a small portion of the participants, I felt the need to leave you with this: it’s a poem that a professor introduced me to in college, and it’s one of my personal favorites.

Tags: Boston Wine Expo

Kim on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 in Special Events, Wine Tasting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or send us a tracback using from your own site using this trackback link: http://wineries.net/blog/2008/02/12/this-years-boston-wine-expo-attendees-pledge-to-drink-wine-by-the-gallon-in-sickness-and-in-health/trackback/