Wine lovers in Beantown, listen up. Right about now you may be wondering just what you’re doing freezing your keisters off in the depths of yet another winter. But January provides at least one good reason: the Boston Wine Expo.
There are very few reasons that I’d venture out to Boston in the middle of winter, but let me tell you, the Boston Wine Expo is almost enough of a reason for me to jet on out there from San Francisco. Almost, but not quite. However, if I lived anywhere within 100 miles of the Boston, I would be at the Seaport World Trade center on January 22nd and 23rd.
The Boston Wine Expo claims to be the largest public wine tasting event in the entire country. I don’t know if that refers to the crush of people who usually attend this event or the folks that are pouring. 300 different exhibitors pouring more than 1,800 different wines. is definitely a lot no matter how you slice it.
There are so many different options for what you can do (seminars, guided tastings, food pairings, dinners, concerts, you name it) and what sort of tickets you can buy to do them (reasonable to super expensive), I’m not even going to try to summarize what’s on offer. Go check out their web site and figure it out for yourself. What I would be most interested in personally are the grand tastings where you get to taste a lot of wine, and their special Grand Cru Wine Lounge where you pay more to taste a lot of even better wine.
If you enjoy wine there’s very little excuse not to go have a looksee at what is certainly the best opportunity to educate your palate that you’ll get all year, let alone in the dead of winter.
The 20th Annual Boston Wine Expo
Saturday January 22 and Sunday January 23, 2011
2:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Seaport World Trade Center
200 Seaport Blvd.
Boston, MA, 02210 (map)
Tickets range in price from $95 for a day of tasting to $175 for a full pass. Buy them online in advance to save money and avoid standing on lines when you get there.
And remember my tips for making the most of these large public tastings: get a good night’s sleep before hand; show up with a full stomach; wear dark clothes; drink lots of water; and for heaven’s sake, SPIT if you want to learn anything!
