Summer is on the horizon, and with it come some of the East’s best food and wine festivals. Here’s a look at where to go, when, and why each is a don’t miss event this year.
Nantucket Wine & Food: May 16-20
Galas, grand tastings, and even a luncheon with some of the world’s premier female vintners, chefs, and somms: Nantucket is one of the nation’s most renowned food and wine festivals. Come for the chance to rub elbows with winemakers from California to Chablis; stay for tastings with chefs such as Puerto Rico’s Jose Enrique and Chopped All Stars’ Elizabeth Falkner. This year, the Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame Tasting features Veuve winemaker Delphine Laborde, who will lead guests through a tasting of a variety of vintages of La Grande Dame and the Grande Dame Rosé.
Related: Catch NBC’s Siri Daly at Our Wine & Food Festival
Burlington Wine & Food Festival: June 23
Vermont in June? Yes please. Drop by Burlington to discover the Green Mountain State’s restaurant scene (plus, Vermont cheese) and taste wine from the likes of California’s Boony Doon Vineyard, Oregon’s Teutonic Wine Company, and Rieslings from the Ernst Loosen collection, to name a few.
Photo by David Chow
Chefs and Champagne: July 28
Champagne flows and chefs mingle at this annual Long Island food and wine festival hosted by the James Beard Foundation. The fundraiser, at Wölffer Estate Vineyard, features bites from more than 40 chefs, many from JBF award-winning restaurants, as well as bubbles and an after-party.
Newport Mansions Wine & Food: September 20-23
Held on the grand lawn of the Marble House — a Gilded Age mansion designed as Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt’s summer cottage — this two-day fest features educational seminars, tastings from hundreds of wineries, and even a dinner with five different Bordeaux properties.
Looking for something more local? Check out the Westchester Magazine Wine & Food Festival this June 5-10. Click here for tickets, and enter promo code FOOD to receive 10% off Grand Tasting Village! Don’t wait, this code is only valid through May 11 at 5 p.m.