EPCOT

2008 Festival

Celebrity Chefs
Eat to the Beat
    Concerts
Fun Facts

Rate and Review
-- Free Exhibits and Demos
-- Special Ticketed Events

AllEars® and Reader
Reports
-- General Overview
-- Afternoon Tea with
   Stephen Twining,
    9/29/07
-- Cheese Tastings
     9/29/07
-- Cook, Book, & Bottle
      9/28/07
-- Food & Wine Pairing,
    Bistro de Paris
-- Food & Wine Pairing,
     Tutto Italia 11/12/07
-- Food & Wine Pairing,
     Coral Reef 10/17/07
-- Party for the Senses,
    9/29/07
--Signature Dining
  Inspirations from India,
   9/30/07
--South African Wine
    Adventure, 10/12/07
-- Sweet Sundays, 10/28/07

AllEars® and Reader
Reports
-- General Overview
-- Cheese & Wine Pairing
      Workshop 9/30/06
-- Cook, Book, & Bottle
      9/29/06
-- Exquisite Evening at
       Epcot 10/6/06
-- Food & Wine Pairing,
      Alfredo's
-- Food & Wine Pairing,
      Le Cellier
-- Party for the Senses
    9/30/06
-- Party for the Senses
     10/14/06
-- Sweet Sundays
     10/1/06
-- Twinings Tea Seminar
-- Wine School 9/30/06
-- Wine School 10/28/06
-- Wine and Food in
    Balance Workshop
    10/1/06

Brew Masters
Eat to the Beat
    Concerts
Exclusive Wine &
    Culinary Programs
Fun Facts
Guest Chefs
Special Exhibits
Children's Activities
Wineries

AllEars®
Reports
--General Overview
--Food & Wine
Pairings (Coral Reef and Alfredo's)
--Food & Wine Pairing Le Cellier 10/7/2005
--Food & Wine Pairing, Sushi, Sashimi & Sake
--Lunch and Learn 10/8/05
--Lunch and Learn 10/14/05
--Lunch and Learn 10/29/05
--Odyssey Cooking School 10/6/2005
--Party for the Senses 10/8/05
--Signature Dinner 10/9/05
--Spirited Ball 10/30/05
--Sweet Sundays 10/9/05
--Wine School 10/22/05

2004 Festival
General Info
Daily Wine Seminars
    and Culinary
    Demonstrations
Eat to the Beat
    Concerts
Experiences and
    Exhibits
Fact Sheet
Family Fun Events
Food Booths w/ Prices
Photo Gallery

AllEarsNet®
Reports
-- General Overview
-- Czarina's Low-Carb
Recommendations
-- Food & Wine
Pairings
-- Lunch and Learn 10/10/04
--Lunch and Learn 11/7/04
-- Party for the
Senses 10/2/04
-- Party for the
Senses 10/9/04
--Party for the Senses 11/6/04
--Signature Dinner 10/31/04
--Sweet Sundays 10/10/04
--Sweet Sundays 11/7/04
--Wine School
10/30/04

2003 Festival
General Info
-- Daily Wine Seminars     and Culinary
    Demonstrations
-- Experiences and
    Exhibits
-- Fact Sheet
-- Family Fun Events
-- Food Booths w/Prices

AllEars®
Reports
-- General Overview
-- Czarina's Low-Carb
     Recommendations
-- Food and Wine Pairings
-- Lunch and Learn Series
-- Party for the Senses
-- Reserve Dinner
-- Photo Gallery
-- Tips for Enjoying the
     Festival

2002 Festival
-- Overview and Events
-- Food Booths, $ and     Recipes
-- General Review
-- Signature Dinner
    Review

2001 Festival
-- Food Booths with
    Prices
-- General Festival
    Information
-- Grand Tasting Report
     and Photos
-- Czarina's Royal Table
-- Winemaker's Dinner     Report
-- Special Events
-- Seminars and Demos

2000 First Hand Report
2000 F&W Festival
1999 F&W Festival
1998 F&W Festival

Attraction Seating
   Photo Gallery
Basic Services
Calendar of Events
Character Meet and
   Greet FAQ
Extra Magic Hour
FASTPASS
Operating Hours
Overlooked
   Attractions
Rehabs and Closures
Ride Restrictions
Smoking Policy
Special Needs
    Travelers
    --Epcot in a
       Wheelchair
Ticket FAQ
Tips & Notes
WDW At Large

AT A GLANCE...
Attractions
Characters
Restaurants

FUTURE WORLD
Club Cool
Innoventions
Journey into
   Imagination
Mission: Space
Spaceship Earth
Test Track
The Seas
The Land
--Soarin'
Universe of Energy
Wonders of Life

WORLD SHOWCASE
Mexico
Norway
China
Germany
Italy
American Adventure
Japan
Morocco
France
United Kingdom
Canada

ENTERTAINMENT
IllumiNations:
   Reflections of Earth
IllumiNations Boat
    Cruises
Innoventions Fountains
Live Entertainment
Off Kilter

SPECIAL EVENTS
Flower & Garden
   Festival
Food & Wine Festival

HOLIDAYS
Candlelight
   Processional
Epcot Storytellers
Holidays Around the
   World

TOURS

SPECIAL REPORTS
Chocolate Around the
    World
Far East Finds a Home
    in Florida - The
    Japan Pavilion
Exotic Treasures Found
    in Morocco
Ice Dreams and Rice
    Creams at Norway
Not Just Kid's Stuff:
    Cranium Command

ARCHIVES
Kristos
Lord of the Dance
Millennium Celebration
Millennium Village
Shockwave!
Surprise in the Skies
The Power of Blast!
Tapestry of Dreams
Tapestry of Nations

1982 Guide Map

OTHER THEME PARKS
Animal Kingdom
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Magic Kingdom

Disneyland
Disney's California
    Adventure

Universal Orlando
   Resort

My husband and I have been to a number of the Epcot Food &Wine Festival wine schools over the past few years and have enjoyed them thoroughly. The 6-hour session begins with town car service from Epcot's front entrance to the classroom location and a continental breakfast. Participants then proceed to the classroom for the "school" portion of the program. A lunch is served, paired with wines and then a bit more classroom work after lunch.

As with other all-day wine schools, participants for the October 28 event were met at Epcot Guest Relations and transported via town car through the backstage areas to the Italy Pavilion for a continental breakfast prior to the classroom work. The breakfast consisted of various Italian pastries and your choice of orange juice, coffee, espresso, cappuccino or tea, served by the wonderfully friendly and efficient staff.  Although far superior to the croissant, juice and coffee offered by France at an earlier wine school this year, the breakfast was still a far cry from the beautiful fruit, cheese and pastry-laden buffets we had experienced last year and the year before.

L'Originale Alfredo di Roma manager Richard Eyer welcomed participants, explained a little about the restaurant and its specialties and then introduced Sharron McCarthy, Vice President of Wine Education for Banfi Wines. Ms. McCarthy began her presentation by saying that Italians believe wine has only one purpose, "to give pleasure." With that as an introduction, she introduced a short film entitled "The Etruscan Legacy," narrated by Christina Mariana-May, one of the third-generation Mariana family proprietors of Castello Banfi.

Ms. McCarthy is an extremely knowledgeable, engaging and delightful presenter. She not only outlined the various Italian wine-producing regions, grape varieties and soil types, but she also interspersed her remarks with wonderfully humorous stories, legends and probable (or sometimes improbable) origins of those stories. She also explained the Italian classification system, similar to French wines in many aspects, but far different from the American system of simply naming wines by the type of predominant grape used.

The only complaint I had with this particular wine school is that Ms. McCarthy lectured for all but about 25 minutes of the allotted time and then we tasted seven wines in fairly rapid succession, not really having enough time to enjoy/evaluate one wine before we were on to the next. This was especially evident in the afternoon session. We only had 20 minutes left when we finally got started tasting the last seven wines.

Lunch was a lovely four-course meal. Our first course was a tagliolini with shrimp in a spicy tomato-cream sauce infused with vodka and pepper, paired with a San Angelo estate-bottled Pinot Grigio. The salad course consisted of baby greens, heirloom tomatoes and way too much Italian raspberry vinaigrette dressing. I can't tell you the name of the entree, but it was beautiful, lightly breaded veal topped with roasted peppers and a wine reduction garnish, served with roasted potatoes. The wine pairing for this course was Banfi's Centine Rosso, a wine consisting of 60% Sangiovese, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot.

For dessert we were served a beautiful "tasting" platter with tiramisu, chocolate torte with mascarpone cheese filling, saffron infused pear with chocolate grenache and a Lemoncello ravioli with raspberry sauce.

At the end of the afternoon, participants received certificates of completion on beautiful Florentine parchment, hand-signed by Christine Mariani-May and James Mariani, the two family proprietors of Banfi. In addition, everyone was given a beautiful leatherette binder with all the information from the wine school, as well as other information on Italian wines in general and the Banfi family of wines in particular. Also, everyone received a medal in a beautiful velvet box with a picture of Castello Banfi embossed on the front and "Amici di Castello Banfi" (Friend of Castle Banfi) engraved on the back. Ms. McCarthy said we should be extremely proud of our medals because there are only about 2000 of them in existence.

In thinking back over this particular wine school, I'd say it was extremely well-done and that Ms. McCarthy is a wonderful wine educator, but for some reason, by about 1:30 in the afternoon, I was ready for the school to be over. I'm not sure if it was the somewhat dim lighting in the classroom, the fact that there were long stretches of lecture with no tasting, or some other factor, but I did find my mind wandering, which has never happened before at one of the wine schools.

It was also evident that the seminar was geared more to younger or less knowledgeable wine-lovers than to the group that might participate in Epcot's Vertical Tastings or Exquisite Evenings. Although a couple of the wines topped the $50 per bottle mark, the vast majority were in the $10 to $15 range with one (Riunite Lambrusco) in the under $8 price category. As to pairing these particular wines with food, Ms. McCarthy most often mentioned hot wings, Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich and hamburgers.  It's quite possible that this focus on less expensive wines was because Banfi started out as an importer of less expensive wines and that is still a major portion of their business today or simply because that is the emphasis Ms. McCarthy decided on for this particular presentation.

Wines sampled (in addition to the ones already mentioned for lunch)

Principessa Gavia Gavi (dry white)
Rosa Regale (sparkling rose)
Maschio dei Cavalieri Prosecco di Valdobbiadene  (crisp, fresh white)
Pinot Grigio delle Venezie (dry, crisp, fruity white)
Amarone della Valpolicella Classico (full-bodied, dry red)
Riunite Lambrusco (breezy, light red)
Placido Primavra Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (dry red with soft tannins)
Vernaccia di San Gimignano (DOCG Castello Montauto) (fresh, dry red)
Centine Rosso (fresh, crisp red)
Morellion di Scansano (DOC Val delle Rose) (complex, dry red)
Chianti Classico Riserva (DOCG Banfi) (dry, fruity red)
Brunello do Montalcino (DOCG Castello Banfi) (rich, velvety red0
Cum Laude (Sant' Antimo – DOC Castello Banfi) (complex, elegant red)
Summus (Sant' Antimo – DOC Castello Banfi) (complex, elegant red)