CAROLINA FOOD & WINE FESTIVALS

Food and wine festivals in the Carolinas are hotter than a fried egg on asphalt and the choices are better than ever from the coast to the mountains. With record-setting attendance at events throughout both states, it's obvious that professional chefs, wine experts, and thousands of foodies and festival attendees can stand the heat in the kitchen-as well as keeping their cool in the cellar.

The four-day BB&T Charleston Wine + Food Festival each spring is the most-attended food and wine festival in the Carolinas for good reason. "The Festival will celebrate its eighth year February 28 to March 3, 2013," says executive director Angel Passailaigue Postell. "Charleston is a natural fit for a food and wine festival since it has an incredible local food and restaurant scene."

Originally published in AAA Carolinas



But there are many other options before and after Charleston's eighth helping next year, starting with Greenville's Euphoria September 20-23, 2012. Founded by local restaurateur Carl Sobocinski and beloved musician Edwin McCain (a Greenville native), Euphoria features food, wine, and music through a variety of events.

Euphoria highlights include: cooking demos (often accompanied by live music); restaurant wine dinners featuring guest and resident chefs; wine seminars; and the landmark "Taste of the South" night that features food from Greenville's best restaurants and a concert by Edwin McCain, who invites other musicians.

There's another lyrical fall foodie offering down on the South Carolina coast at Bluffton's stunning Palmetto Bluff. Appropriately called Music to Your Mouth, this fall festival (November 13-18, 2012) features a huge "Culinary Festival," cooking classes, wine tastings, dinners, a block party, a blending class, an oyster roast, a foraging cruise to Daufuskie Island, lots of live music, superstar chefs, and much more. The "Whole Hog Weekend Package" is a great way to go.

Two other coastal South Carolina options to consider for spring 2013 include the Hilton Head Wine & Food Festival and Myrtle Beach's Coastal Uncorked Food, Wine & Spirits Festival.

Up in North Carolina, November's TerraVITA Grand Tasting on the Green in Chapel Hill November 3, 2012, features many of the state's best chefs and artisan producers, dozens of biodynamic and natural wines, sustainably-produced microbrews, coffees and spirits from around the world, cooking demonstrations, wine and beverage seminars, a Sustainable Classroom, and farm dinners during the week preceding the Saturday shindig.

There are also several spring festivals that celebrate food and wine, with Blowing Rock's Blue Ridge Wine & Food Festival providing a perfect example of Tar Heel State festival hospitality. Taking place each April (April 10-14, 2013), this festival has a small town feel with big-time offerings. Highlights of the four-day event include: a commercial and amateur wine competition; cooking classes; wine tastings; cooking competitions; vintner's dinners; a "Grand Wine Tasting;" and a sparkling Sunday brunch.

Down on the North Carolina coast, the spring-time Beaufort Wine & Food Weekend and Outer Banks Restaurant Association's Taste of the Beach are two other fresh options.

Late August brings the ever-expanding Asheville Wine & Food Festival where fans of this "Foodtopia" town will enjoy food, wine, and local beers (Asheville's also known as "Brewtopia").

In the central Piedmont, the Pinehurst Food and Wine Festival is considered a high-end boutique festival over the Labor Day weekend, with all the typical festival fixings-plus unique events like the "Wine Mart" (cost plus 10% for some seriously prestigious wines). For a festival with big city flair, it's hard to beat the biannual Charlotte Wine & Food Weekend which will next be held April, 2014.

WEB EXTRAS
The Charleston Wine + Food Festival
South Carolina's historic coastal city of Charleston has developed an international reputation as a dining destination, so the initial 2006 Charleston Wine + Food Festival and every year following were destined to be huge hits. Like most successful food and wine festivals, Charleston's recipe for success is a nice mix of local talent and visiting culinary icons. The "Culinary Village" provides lots of wine and food tasting opportunities, while other tasty options include: a "Salute to Charleston Chefs" opening night (paired with lots of wines); a world-class dine-around at famed Charleston restaurants (local chefs cook with visiting star chefs); numerous wine seminars, cooking demonstrations; "Bubbles & Bites;" "Shop, Sip + Savor;" Sunday's "Lowcountry Gospel Brunch;" and Sunday night's "BBQ Blues, Blues, + Brew."

"We always try to keep things new and different so our guests will come back to the Festival each year and 2013 will be no different," says executive director Angel Passailaigue Postell. "We are putting new twists on favorite events, whether it's having them at new locations or switching up a theme or day. We're also adding some exciting new events, like our first-ever Tribute Dinner to legendary Southern chef Frank Stitt and The New + Notables Dinner, which will showcase some of the country's best up-and-coming chefs." She adds, "Tickets go on sale on August 30 and most popular events are sold out well before March!"

A Taste of Greenville & Euphoria
Downtown Greenville has become a Carolinas dining destination and much of it is thanks to the groundbreaking work done at Soby's. "Greenville is my hometown and it never ceases to amaze me how downtown has become a real destination," says Food Network star and Greenville native Tyler Florence. "The culinary history of the area is invariably rich and a few pioneering restaurateurs like Carl Sobocinski [co-founder of Soby's] have turned Greenville into a true culinary destination."

Take home a taste of Greenville and Euphoria with Soby's New South Cuisine, an award-winning cookbook from the Table 301 group of restaurants (Soby's was their first downtown undertaking). It's actually more than a cookbook, thanks to "The Soby's Story" sections interspersed throughout the picture-packed coffee table book. It's more like a love letter to downtown Greenville that also happens to have recipes locals and visitors have grown to love--like Soby's Exotic Mushroom Meatloaf (pictured), which can still be found on the menu at Soby's.

Look for Carolinas Wines, Beers, & Spirits at Nearby Food & Wine Festivals
Most wine and food festivals have wines, beers, and spirits being poured from around the world, but world-class options of all three are also being produced right here in the Carolinas. "We pour at many wine and food festivals throughout the Carolinas," says Mark Friszolowski, winemaker at Childress Vineyards "It gives us a different opportunity to interact directly with consumers and get immediate feedback. It also allows us to do our part in establishing North Carolina as a wine producing region."

Sean Lilly Wilson, owner and CEO (Chief Executive Optimist) of Durham's Fullsteam Brewery, agrees, saying, "Beer and wine festivals--like the long-running World Beer Festival--are often a great way to sample the amazing beers being brewed in the Carolinas." Wilson also led the successful "Pop the Cap" campaign to raise North Carolina's alcohol level limits for beer. The huge World Beer Festival is now held in Durham, Raleigh, and Columbia, as well as Richmond, Virginia.

Varied Carolinas spirits and spirited concoctions will also be found more frequently at food and wine festivals. A sampling of the possibilities includes: now legendary Sweet Tea Vodka and more from Firefly Distillery, moonshine corn whiskey from Dark Corner Distilleryand Troy & Sons, and gin from Southern Artisan Spirits.