Sorely behind on this

Sorry that it's taken forever for us to update. First, we lost the password to get into this account, and it took much longer to recover it than was called for. Second, both Halloween and Thanksgiving came and went, and now Christmas is fast approaching. M is logging a lot of extra hours at work. And lastly, we went on vacation and need to update about that. So yes, we're way behind, but hopefully once things calm down in a few weeks, we'll be back on schedule with updates.

So at the end of October/beginning of November, we went on vacation with M's family. There was a three-day cruise to the Bahamas, followed by two more days in Florida. We had visited Walt Disney World only a few years ago (when we got engaged), so going again seemed like a waste of money. Things don't change all that much at the Magic Kingdom, you know? But then E found out that while we'd be in Florida, EPCOT Center would be wrapping up it annual International Food & Wine Festival. Needless to say, this was the push we needed to buy tickets to the parks. So on Monday, November 2, the two of us (along with M's sister J) decided to drink our way through EPCOT's World Showcase.

The International Food & Wine Festival is easy to figure out. The World Showcase circles a big lagoon, and it's split up into different "countries." There's Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, the U.S., Japan, Morocco, France, the U.K., and Canada. When it's time for the F&W Fest (abbreviations from now on; it's too long to type), little booths are built around the main lagoon, with each country set up closest to it's geographical or political neighbor. For example, the New Zealand booth was erected near the U.K. and Canada. Austria was built near Germany. Thailand and India were built near China. You get the idea. Over thirty booths were built this year, each with anywhere from 3 to 5 food items, and 3 to 8 alcoholic beverages available.

We worked our way counterclockwise around the lagoon, if only to go against the crowds. At the San Juan, Puerto Rico booth E purchased a tappas-sized portion of ham croquetas, which turned out to be her favorite food at the entire festival. Way to ruin it by starting with the best. Next we headed to the Santiago, Chile booth, which had some of the best wine at the festival. M tried the Natura Carmenere, which was a spectacular full-bodied red. Next we went to the Athens booth, where J tried a wine called Kourtaki Mavrodaphne of Patras, which was slightly meady. The Montreal booth had Canadian cheddar cheese soup, which was delicious. Unfortunately, the Chateau des Charmes Riesling was rather blah.

One of their featured exhibits was "The New York Wine Adventure," which was a special booth set up featuring a ton of wines from New York State. A woman working at the festival had recommended we try their red wine which was a blend of a cabernet, merlot, and shiraz. When E got to the booth, she asked for it only to have the server not know which wine that was. Hrm. He asked someone else, who said it was one of two. So E ended up taking a guess, and was left disappointed. The wine was Taste Red, Beddel Cellars 2007, and was rather middle-of-the-road. E will readily admit that she likes her red wines heavy, spicy, and with a full-mouth feel, but this went down like an everyday table wine. Phooey.

From this point on, we ventured to the New Zealand booth, which had a HUGE line. The food was excellent (lamb sliders with tomator chutney), and the wine was great as well. From Villa Maria Wines, we tried both the Sauvignon Blanc and the Private Bin Unoaked Chardonnay, which was an amazing taste. Superb all around. Then we were on to Ireland, where we sampled the cheese but skipped the Guinness. Paris had a booth for the festival as well as their regular showcase restaurants. J tried the Parisien Cosmo Slush, which cost a fortune but tasted phenomenal. Morocco also had a booth as well as their permanent restaurants, and we tried the Amazigh Red, which was very tasty.

At this point we needed a break from drinking, so we headed into the shops in the Japan Pavillion. While J and E wandered around looking at Hello Kitty merchandise, M found the small bar at the back of the store and ordered a glass of plum wine. The bartender gave him the glass, which had a small plum in the wine. It seems they had plums fermenting in the wine, soaking up all the wine goodness, and it was juicy and ripe and full of booze, which makes plums even tastier than normal. M thinks that out of all the wine he had at the F&W Fest, this drink was the best that he tried. It's there year-round, too, so if you find yourself at EPCOT, now you know where to go for a good plum wine.

We headed back to the festival and stopped at the New Orleans booth for praline bread pudding, and then on to the "Hops and Barley" booth in front of the U.S. Showcase. E had been told when making my Disney reservations that we HAD to try the crab cakes here, and they were absolutely wonderful. E tried a pint of the Sam Adams 14th Annual Festival Beer, which was very good. Not too hoppy, with a hint of fruit flavor without being overly sweet. It was similar to the Cherry Wheat beer, if you've ever had that. Definitely recommended. Sam Adams always delivers when it comes to good beer.

By this point we had begun to notice something about the wine at the festival: most of it was, for the most part, very blah. We think that because there are so many people attending the F&W Fest, they try to get middle-of-the-road wines that aren't likely to sway your palate one way or another. None of the Rieslings were too sweet; none of the Cabs were too spicy. After a while, everything began to taste like your average table wines. We've been to plenty of different wine festivals, and have tried many different types of wine all in one day. But sadly, we've never felt like we had fewer options than what there were at the F&W Fest. We guessed that they'd rather err on the side of caution and go with the easy "everyone will like it" varieties, but we expected more. It was a bit of a bummer.

At the Vienna booth, we tried a great wine called Iby Zweigelt. Unfortunately we also tried a terrible wine called Leth-Gruner Veltliner, which was so sour that M dumped his in a bush. Bologna, Italy had a phenomenal prosecco by Fantinel. Over at the Melbourne, Australia booth we tried the Rosemount Traminer Riesling, which was quite good. Cape Town, South Africa had three selections from the Goats Do Roam winery, a white, red, and rose. J tried one of these and it was adequate to good. That said, these are the only wines from the F&W Fest that we've found at any wine stores upon returning home.

By now we were running out of money, we full from eating (the gulab juman at the New Dehli booth was superb), and were tired. Unfortunately this means that we stopped taking notes on what we were trying from here on out. We may have tried some red wines from Spain or Argentina, but we honestly can't remember. All we know is that we gave the last of our money to the "Desserts & Champagne" booth. There was the Moet White Star champagne, White Star Rose, and the Nectar Imperial from Chandon.

Overall the F&W Fest was a very fun experience. The food was excellent, and being able to "tour the world" by eating appetizers and desserts from around the world was an experience one doesn't often get. However, from a wine standpoint the F&W Fest was a bit of a bust. Honestly, we had more diverse and complex wines at the Taste Illinois wine festival over at the Starved Rock State Park. But it was an event that you don't often get to attend, so overall we have to say that it's worth it. Despite the high prices, despite the crowds, despite the bordering-on-weak selection of wines, it's too much fun to pass up.