Hamilton’s Food and Drink Fest is now in it’s 3rd year and I can definitely see that it’s getting bigger … more folks showed up than I saw last year, the place was a sell-out for exhibitors (as every possible corner was filled with a booth), food, wine and beer were all given equal billing and the spacing out of these booths was well managed – meaning that all the wines weren’t in one place and all the beers in another, a good mixtures was to be found in all the aisles – you could sample as you saw fit.  A young wine show always has glitches and I noticed two minor issues this year.  One, which prevented me from really tasting the wines, was the glass (same as last year) – great little vessel for beer, spirits and port, but not very wine-tasting-friendly.  The second was the lack of dump buckets for unwanted/unfinished libations – some very major wine pouring booths (ie:  Churchill Cellars with a dozen or more wines) didn’t have a single dump bucket, which meant you had to cross the floor to find a garbage can and by then your attention drifted elsewhere.  Good for you, not so good for Churchill.  These are minor issues that did not affect the show to any degree for the hundreds that came through the door on this night – in fact, maybe it’s just me being nit-picky.

So this year’s Fest was all about food and beer for me … last year I wrote about the wine and food, this year I decided to focus my attention in a different way.  In no way was I able to visit or taste everything, so I went in search of beef and beer ... (Read more)

To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.