So where did we leave off talking about the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival last week? Oh yeah, with the wine!
And oh what a wine selection it was. Four or five wines, paired with the food, in each and every country! I didn’t even realize that some of these countries had their own wine industries, so it was great to see the variety. This was the scene at every country:
My personal favorite festival wine was in New Zealand. I think they’re on the cusp of giving Australia a run for their money in the serious wine department. This Sauvignon Blanc was outstanding on a hot October day:
My favorite wine overall on the trip was a lovely rose in France, but since it’s wasn’t *officially* part of the festival, I’m not featuring it here. I have to have something to share with you after my next non-festival trip!
But to be really fair, I can’t just talk about the wine that was at the festival, because there was so much more in the adult beverage category. Several of the countries (like Ireland, South Africa, Japan, and of course Germany, to name a few) also had local beers on tap, and there was an international “beer passport” station where you could buy flights of beer.
Festival sponsor Sam Adams had a complimentary beer tasting in the Americas Pavilion, where you got to taste four Sam beers–Boston Lager, Sam Light, Oktoberfest, and my favorite, the Special 14th Anniversary Festival Ale, which was a blackberry wheat. The blackberry wheat was fantastic–a really nice wheat beer with a light blackberry finish that hits just at the back of the tongue. I was super sad that this was only available at the festival! Please Sam, consider adding this to your seasonal lineup along with Cherry Wheat! We enjoyed SEVERAL 22 ounce pours of this beer over our two days at the festival.
And then there were also liquors and mixed drinks available in some countries for tasting. We had a ton of fun doing tequila tastings in the Mexico Pavilion, and I think if it’s available again next year, we will do the tequila tasting class that is offered in the bar where we had these. We were in the bar while the class was going on, and it sounded like they were having so much fun, I was a little sad (before our shots of course) that we weren’t part of the class!
At the Ireland Pavilion the Meade was flowing! We were seriously tempted to buy a bottle of this to bring home with us, but alas we had to pass since we knew our luggage was already overweight. Good thing I know my sister has a bottle stashed at her place…
And I will leave you with our overall favorite *adult* beverage at the festival–a frozen cosmo in France. Normally I’m not a girl who is big on the frozen mixed drinks. Maybe it was the temperature or just the overall spirit of the day, but we all LOVED this drink. It was pink, delicious, and perfect. And we won’t wait until the end of our next visit to have another one.
As with the food, I was really impressed by the wine and other adult beverage portion of the festival. Once again, it was over the top and the selection was fantastic. And did I mention everything was available to purchase by the bottle, all at reasonable, not crazily marked up prices? Well done Epcot. If you make it to the festival, don’t miss the adult beverage portion of the festivities! And be safe and use Disney transportation to get you back to your hotel!
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Wow, I’m not usually a frozen mixed drink person either, but that frozen cosmo looks incredible! It’s so cheerful and pretty! The blackberry wheat bear sounds fantastic – I second your call for Sam Adams to release it as a regular! Thank you for the awesome tour of beverages! :-)
CONGRATULATIONS on the ad campaign!! SO awesome, and very, very well deserved!!
I’ll also add one of the beer oddities, a true bargain price-find. The price points on the beers were generally pretty reasonable – about $6 for a 12 oz pour. A little higher than bar prices, but pretty much the same as elsewhere on property and favorably comparable to, say, stadium prices. They also offered, generally, a 22 oz pour for most beers – usually, but not always, complete with souvenir plastic beer stein. It’s what we referred to as “going and getting big beers” – and the blackberry wheat in one of those suckers was right next to awesome. Those were generally like $11-$12.
THE steal, though, was in Japan – where they were serving Kirin on tap, 20 oz – for $7. No souvenir stein – but this was definitely the beer buy of the festival, only no one was looking…..
A little worried that by revealing this, Disney’ll find it somehow and get wise and correct itself. But, seeing as there are still a couple of weeks left of the festival, maybe someone can benefit. It was odd, as Kirin is not a bad beer, and it was the only beer like this. If you’re going, happy hunting!