Wine lovers prepare for the region’s largest wine event next week.
Wine lovers prepare for the region’s largest wine event next week. The 9th annual Virginia Wine Expo kicks off at the Greater Richmond Convention Center next Wednesday and runs through the weekend and it’s going to bigger and juicier than ever. Meaning more wine… a lot more.
Variant Events Executive Director Alex PapaJohn said 53 Virginia wineries including Barboursville, Coopers Hawk Winery and Restaurant, James River Wine Cellars, Veritas Vineyard and Winery among others will be pouring at the expo this year along with 40 to 50 Italian wine producers.
“They’ll be pouring close to 400 bottles that you can taste and buy,” PapaJohn said. “We have another 40 to 50 Italian wine producers that will be represented at the event and that will add another another 150 Italian bottles.”
Now slow down all you lushes. You only get a 1 ounce sample, but they are unlimited so try to pace yourself at the two walk around grand tastings this time around.
You get to taste all these fine Italian wines, because the VA Wine Expo chose Italy as their guest region this year, a feature they started doing a few years ago.
“We introduced it two years ago when France was our first guest region,” he said. “Last year the guest region was South Africa and for the very first time we added South African wine to the walk around grand tasting, they were extremely popular. This year we’re expanding it.”
The Italian wines will only be for sampling, not for sale.
Of course the two walk around grand tastings during the weekend are the main events, the five-day expo has 20 other events on the schedule this year. It will feature specialty food, wine and food pairings, wine seminars and lunches and dinners held at various restaurants throughout the city.
Two of the main events which you don’t want to miss out on are Burger Blast on Friday and new this year, Smoked on Saturday.
Burger Blast has sold out every year according to PapaJohn.
“We’ll probably have 1,300 to 1,400 people at that event,” he said. The event will feature 23 chefs from local restaurants such as Jack Brown’s Burger and Beer Joint, Lehja, American Tap Room, Capital Ale House, and Africanne on Main cooking up various types of burgers.
“Each chef does an extra creative slider,” he said.
Expect to pair your delicious sliders with wines from eight Virginia wineries or a one of 40 Virginia craft beers.
Smoked, the other main event this year, is a first for the expo and will be held at the Dominion Arts Center (formerly Centerstage) on Saturday. Smoked will feature smoked meats, chicken and seafood and course, BBQ.
“We’ve always wanted to have a major Saturday night event,” PapaJohn said. “We decided to design a concept that was similar in nature, we took a type of cuisine, in this case, smoked cuisine from around the world.”
Peter Chang’s, Edwards Virginia Smokehouse, The Hard Shell, ZZQ, Buz & Ned’s and/or Alamo BBQ, Sub Rosa and other restaurants will be supplying dishes for Smoked. PapaJohn said attendees for Smoked can expect 25 to 30 Italian wines and wait for it…35 whiskeys from Virginia, Scotland, Kentucky and Japan to help wash down your smokey meal. In addition to the whiskey and wine, there will two beers from Hardywood.
Some of the lunches and dinners held around town throughout the expo will be at Enoteca Sogna, Quirk Hotel, and Julep’s New Southern Cuisine.
In addition to burgers and smoked meats, the expo will offer a ton of specialty gourmet foods you can sample and purchase.
“Everything you can imagine sauces, marinades, dips, mixes, peanut butters, pretzels and peanuts and olive oils and vinegars, its really pretty impressive,” PapaJohn said.
And for your entertainment, the Virginia Wine Expo will have live music from Griff’s Room Band and the RVA Loves R&J Festival.
The latter is a collaboration with the Virginia Opera and the Richmond Ballet. The VA Opera and Richmond Ballet are premiering Romeo and Juliet this weekend and the following weekend.
“They felt like what goes better than romance than wine?” he said. “Since all their events were happening this weekend and next weekend and ours is happening next weekend, we’re tied together.”
The festival is offering a 20 percent discount to ballet and opera patrons to six events on the expo’s schedule. Read more about that here.
PapaJohn said last year the expo had around 9,000 attendees and this year, they’re expecting to see between 9,000 and 10,000 people over the course of the expo.
And it’s no wonder the event draws in the thousands with its growing number of events and offerings each year.
“We have had a vision since the very start to build the VA Wine Expo into a major national destination wine and food event,” he said. “In order to do that you have to have enough high quality events to motivate and incentivize people to want to travel.”
PaaJohn said this year the expo has guests coming from 25 states if not more along with international guests.
“We already know we have guests coming from overseas, we have guests coming from France,” he said. “The vast majority still comes from within a three hour drive.”
So I think it’s safe to say whether you’re a whiskey or lover, or foodie, there’s a little something for everyone at this expo. It’s also benefiting Richmond Centerstage if you already didn’t have enough reasons to go.
The 9th Annual Virginia Wine Expo will be held at the Richmond Convention Center Feb. 17-21 (along with nearby participating restaurants for the lunch and dinners). Burger Blast costs between $50 and $65 (one VIP, one GA). Smoked costs $75. The walk around grand tastings for Saturday and Sunday cost between $45 and $60. There’s also a combo package for Burger Blast and the grand tasting for $90. Get your tickets here.
