Wine Fest, a celebration of flavors and good taste

The Wine Fest, held last Monday November 20, was a great success. Organized by wine dealer Viña de Baco and Wine Bar Viña and Salvatore’s, this celebration of wine and food took place on the beach of the Mayan Palace Hotel at Marina Vallarta.

Rendezvous was at 5 o’clock. For this special occasion, I asked my good friend Súl Ra to come along with me. Being the connoisseur she is, Súl Ra was bound to be a great company.

We got there around 5:30, as people were starting to gather around the different stands. The layout was well planned, as there was one food stand after two of wine, creating a perfect path.

We received our bracelet at the access point and walked toward the first stands. They were organized by labels and types of grapes. You found reds, sparkling, whites, roses all sorted.

A wonderful evening at the beach

After picking our wine holder plates, we set off for the first station. Several labels of red were offered. We went for a Malbec, which turned out to be very good. Some hors d’oeuvres were in order too. We looked for a high cocktail table as there were some scattered around the exhibition area.

It went all uphill from there. You could find wines from all over the world: Mexico, of course, was present. Argentina and Chile were a must, as was Sonoma Valley in California. I had never had Chinese wine, and this was my opportunity to try one. Truth be told, it wasn’t bad but not spectacular either.

Minutes went by without noticing. Sunset came with its usual orange, spectacular hues. The evening was an opportunity to greet friends, make new acquaintances and exchange opinions about the wines we were tasting.

Whenever somebody said, “you should try this wine,” off we went to see if their opinion was agreeable. And most of the time it was.

Good thing we were following the recommendations, as it would have been impossible to taste all of the options available. According to Olivert Maldonado, of Viña de Baco

We are tasting 48 wine labels from 14 different wine houses. Here today are representatives of four of them: La Castellana, Corona del Valle, Amazing Wine, and Fleuriel.

The organizers’ idea is to have this Wine Fest twice a year: one in November to kick off the high season, and one more by the end of March, to close it. At least on this one, response by the public was very good, as over 200 people enjoyed a soiree of flavors and aromas well worth the visit.