Wining Allowed

We came back from Florida a day earlier than planned because we had previously been invited to a food and wine show in downtown Atlanta and when hubby’s company rescheduled his annual conference at first we forgot about the food/wine show and booked our hotel through tomorrow.  Then I remembered and we decided it was worth coming home a day early.

We originally wanted my sister and her husband and my cousin and her husband and our two younger daughters to go with us.  We (in our minds) had planned out a wonderful long weekend around this food/wine show.  I guess it’s a good thing neither of them could make it because we were in Florida until Sunday!  Maybe they can make it next year.

When we found out that neither my sister nor my cousin could come we told our girls they could both invite a friend but then it worked out that our youngest couldn’t go (turns out you have to be 21 to come to the show but since they didn’t check ID’s I don’t see where it would have made much difference if she just went to eat the food.  Guess it’s a good thing that didn’t work out either because there wasn’t nearly the food they had at the last one we went to.

Hubby and #2 checking out the flavoreed vodkas

The last one had like four exhibit halls.  One had fruit and cheese vendors lining one side of the hall and dessert vendors lining the opposite wall.  Then the HUGE ballroom had I couldn’t even count how many food vendors interspersed with wine vendors.  Then another whole hall had wines and dessert wines and then the last hall had liquors and liqueurs.   We spent HOURS in there and ended up a little tipsy when we left but fat and happy none the less with all the food and “spirits” available.

We picked up #2 and my old boss and his wife met us there later.  They were in a different venue this time.  They moved it to like the grand ballroom of the Apparel Mart downtown.  The room was huge and it was set up a lot differently than last time.  They did have a live band playing which was a very nice touch.  BUT…they didn’t have hardly any food vendors compared to the last one we went to.  They only had ONE vendor with cheese of any kind.  Don’t get me wrong.  They were good cheeses but only ONE?  They had a few beef vendors and a few chicken vendors and I saw one each with pork, veal and even one with quail (which was fabulous by the way).  They had LOTS of seafood which I am not a HUGE fan of but if that’s your cup of tea then I guess you had plenty to choose from.  I guess since the main sponsor was a seafood purveyor then it makes sense that would be the majority of the vendors!

The one thing they had plenty of was vino!  They gave you a glass and a bottle of water when you entered the room so now I have two nice new wine glasses to make up for the two (yes, TWO) that I broke on the same night last week!  I got to try a lot of new wines I’d never heard of from all over.  The majority of the wineries were in California but there were also wineries from Chile, Russia, Australia, France and Germany.  There was also a smattering of wines from across the states other than California.  I remember they had one from Oregon, Washington State, Illinois, and I can’t remember where else.

They also had a few vendors that had flavored liquors like basil and cucumber vodka which sound awful but were pretty good and they a few sparkling ciders and even a couple of vendors who only did mixers.  All in all it was a good time and good wine.  What more could you ask?

I leave you with a couple of pictures from the wine/food show:

#2 checking out the whole raw fish display with her daddy

This and the next two were of me standing in one spot and turning and snapping from the middle of the room to give an idea of how big it was.