Epcot Food & Wine Festival: Articles

Nov

15

“You CAN Have Champagne with Food!”

Wine  Written by / 2 comments

Toasted Pascal Boye, director of Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, kicking off the French Regional Wine Luncheon at the 2011 Epcot Food & Wine Festival. Four delicious Bistro de Paris courses were paired with four sublime Champagnes from Nicolas Feuillatte and proved just that. Most people think of Champagne only as an aperitif or celebratory beverage but its great for all occasions and perfect with food.

Founded 30 years ago by Nicolas Feuillatte, who started out in the coffee business, Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte (pronounced f00-yacht) is now the #1 selling Champagne brand in France and the #3 Champagne brand worldwide. They have 2,200 hectares of vineyards in Champagne, France including 13 of 17 Grand Crus and 33 of 42 Premier Crus (villages in Champagne are classified according to their quality, Grand Cru is 100% and Premier Cru is 90-99%). Winemaker Jean-Pierre Vincent and his team turn lovely wines into exquisite champagnes. As Pascal called out for us, Champagne is a wine before the yeast is added and the wine is aged a minimum of 3 years thus producing Champagne. While the company was sold in 1986 to Centre Vinicole de la Champagne, the largest union of Champagne producers, 86-year-old Nicolas at 86 years old is still involved in the business he created.

Over the three-and-a-half-hour luncheon, Eric Weistroffer and his fabulous Bistro de Paris team popped bottle after bottle of Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, 65 bottles to be exact for the 85 of us, to serve with our lunch.

Amuse-Bouche paired with Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, Brut N.V.

  • Combines 2004, 2005 and 2006 grapes and aged 3 years
  • Grape Variety: 40% Pinot Noir, 20% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Meunier
  • Aroma: White fruit, herbal with a touch of nut
  • Taste: Delicate bubbles combine with smooth, balanced herbal notes
  • Price: $30
  • My thoughts: Great everyday champagne and at a great price for this quality.

Snapper with Champagne Sauce paired with Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte Cuvee 225, Vintage 2003

  • Aged 7 years
  • Grape Variety: 50% Pinot Noir, 50% Chardonnay
  • Aroma: Hints of honey, spice, vanilla
  • Taste: White fruits with vanilla
  • Price: $55
  • My thoughts: This was my favorite course and pairing! The Champagne itself is divine but then paired with the gruyere cheese and bread crumb encrusted snapper and the Champagne sauce, it knocked my socks off! This Champagne has more structure, depth and a nice lingering aftertaste.

Veal Medallion & Sweetbread Forestiere paired with Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Cuvee Palmes d’Or, Vintage 1999

  • Nicolas created this champagne in 1985 in memory of one of the loves of his youth. It comes from 8 famous Grand Cru Vineyards.
  • Aged 10 years, 1999 was a great vintage
  • Grape Variety: 50% Pinot Noir, 50% Chardonnay
  • Aroma: White flowers, honey, pineapple, vanilla
  • Taste: Soft round small bubbles accentuate the aromas and leave them lingering on your pallate
  • Price: $139
  • My thoughts: The story that goes with the Champagne is fabulous and when you see the bottle designed for it, its amazing! A lovely and very complex Champagne with many layers. This grand Champagne would be a wonderful gift or add glitz to any special occasion.

 

White Chocolate Mousse with Raspberry and Praline paired with Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, Brut Rose NV

  • Beautiful pink color comes from brief skin contact of Pinot Noir grape with the wine.
  • Grape Variety: 60% Pinot Noir, 10% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Meunier
  • Aroma: Red fruit bouquet
  • Taste: Full of strawberry, raspberry and blackberry layers
  • Price: $50
  • My thoughts: I love rosé and this Champagne variety is no exception! Not only is it gorgeous in the bottle, the pairing with dessert brought out the fruit of the wine, lightened sweetness of the praline and sweetened the mousse.

It was an incredible afternoon of champagne, food and meeting new people, including my table mates Pat, Pat and Denise, and one of my highlights of this year’s festival. See the gallery for more great photos.

With all the holidays coming up, try pairing Champagne with some of your meals. Everyone will be pleased!

For more on Champagne, see more Grape Occasions articles.

Santé!

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Nov

10

Sip a Dream of Italy

Wine  Written by / 0 comments

Two new Italian wines exclusively for Disney Parks, Sogno d’Italia, were introduced at this year’s Epcot Food & Wine Festival. Bottled by Placido in Tuscany and imported by Banfi Vintners, these easy drinkable wines will continue to be available after the festival at Enoteca Castello in Epcot’s Italy and begin to be served in many Disney restaurants.

Sogno d’Italia means dream of Italy. “When we dream of Italy, we dream not only of its noble traditions but of its appealingly easygoing lifestyle. These wines embody both of those ideas,” says Placido winemaker Paolo Benassi.

I really enjoyed these wines and they are great examples of wine from Tuscany.

Chianti, DOCG

  • Like most Chianti, this wine is made of predominantly the region’s native Sangiovese grape.
  • Aroma: Classic violet.
  • Taste: Soft round plum and cherry with hints of spice.

Pinot Grigio, Toscana IGT

  • This wine is unique in that typical Pinot Grigio comes from cooler northern Italy. This one from warmer Tuscany so the grape variety has slightly different characteristics.
  • Aroma: Fragrant white flowers.
  • Taste: Crisp freshness yet pear forward.

Each bottle costs $16.95 or $6 for a glass. For more fun wine photos from the festival, visit the gallery.

Salute to dreams of Italy!

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Nov

09

2 Days, 6 Continents, 23 Countries, Lots of Wine & Food

Travel / Wine  Written by / 3 comments

That was our weekend at this year’s annual Epcot Food & Wine Festival in Orlando, Florida. Each autumn Epcot, one of four Walt Disney World Resorts, hosts this food and wine lover’s dream festival expanding their usual 11 country World Showcase into 23 where you can travel from Argentina to Paris to Japan and more in hours.

While you can spend your days strolling and sampling the International Marketplace’s 72 tapas sized food samples and 109 wine, beer and cocktail offerings, as was our focus last year, this year we planned in advance to experience some of the festival’s premium events.

Must GO’s from this year’s festival (more details on these in the coming posts)…

  • French Regional Wine Lunch: This 3 ½ hour dining experience at Bistro de Paris featured the region of Champagne and the exquisite Champagne’s of Nicolas Feuillate.
  • Epcot Wine School: During this 2 hour educational and wine tasting experience, Sharron McCarthy with Banfi Wines took us on a tour of Italian wine.
  • New Wine Discoveries from Italy, Germany, Portugal and China.

The Festival Welcome Center is a great place to begin your exploration. Pick up your passport highlighting all the great samples in each country and make sure you get stamped as you sample. The Center also offers great experiences like home entertaining seminars, food and beverage author discussions, book and bottle signings and the Intermission Café hosted by Kobrand.  It’s also the location of culinary, wine and beverage/mixology seminars.

Epcot admission gives you access to the park, Welcome Center and International Marketplaces. You pay for the tastings, many seminars and all premium events. With the festival now in its 16th year, there are loyal fans of the event and premium events sell out quickly. You can also buy tickets to the Eat to the Beat Concert Series. Check out the gallery for lots of great photos.

The festival is a great opportunity to travel the world’s beverage and culinary offerings in only a few days!

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Nov

03

On my way to Epcot Food & Wine Festival

Travel / Wine  Written by / 0 comments

On a flight now to Orlando for this 16th annual food and wine lovers dream festival! Our first visit last year was a blast and this year I’m looking forward to new experiences including:

  • Epcot Wine School: I’m attending one of the five wine schools offered during the festival. Sunday’s school is ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered by Italian Wine’ with Sharron McCarthy, CSW of Castello Banfi Wines.
  • French Regional Lunch: Friday I’ll be dining at Bistro de Paris featuring the Champagne region with Nicolas Feuillate Champagne and their sales director Pascal Boye.
  • Disney Wines: Debuting at this year’s festival are two new Disney wines Sogno d’Italia wines, a Pinot Grigio and a Chianti, developed exclusively for Disney in partnership with Banfi.
  • 25 international kiosks of food and beverage including new this year Portugal, Caribbean and Hawaii.

Follow me on Twitter (@GrapeOccasions) the next few days for updates then I’ll have lots to share on my website next week.

Cheers!

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Nov

18

Eating & Drinking Around the World

Travel  Written by / 4 comments

That’s what we did this weekend at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival… a food and wine lover’s extravaganza, this year celebrating its 15th Anniversary! Where else can you go for a weekend to enjoy the tastes of over 25 countries while feeling like your visiting the country?

On any given day at Epcot you can explore the World Showcase featuring replicas of 12 country’s highlights like the Eiffel Tower in Paris and St. Mark’s Square in Venice. Then for this annual 6 week festival each autumn, the countries double in number with designed kiosks across the showcase serving up tapas-sized portions of regional food and beverage specialities (my favorites: Signapore’s Shrimp Cake with Signapore Noodle Salad and new beverage discoveries from Morocco, Ireland and France).  Each kiosk also provides a great information about the food and beverage you’re tasting.

In addition to eating and drinking your way around the world (don’t forget to pick up your special passport to get stamped at each stop), there are culinary events like cheese seminars, parties, live music, beverage seminars facilitated by winemrkers and sommeliers, book signings and bottle signings. The nightly Eat to the Beat! Concert series this year featured acts from Boyz II Men to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

Epcot admission gets you into the festival but tastes and many seminars are extra. Over the next few days I’ll share with you some of the great experiences I had on my first year at the event…Sparkler Sampler, Boisset Family Estates in Burgundy Wine Seminar and Ireland and Morocco Wine Discoveries.

Mark your calendar for next year and check out the program in advance to see if there are great events you’d like to attend!

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