Woodlands Wine & Food Week takes place June 5-June 11th in the beautiful suburban area of Houston Texas – The Woodlands! Wine & Food Week as a whole sees about 10,000 people come through during the week. Guest can expect a gastronomic grandeur of events highlighting more than 500 wines, 75 restaurants, legendary wine producers and culinary personalities.
Last year’s events were awesome! An enjoyable week of decadent bites from the city’s top chefs and wines from around the world. Check out my 2016 recap of Woodlands Wine & Food Week below and get your tickets for this year’s events here.
“It’s a Guy Thing”
My Wine and Food filled week kicked off with “It’s a Guy Thing,” the quintessential “it’s a man’s world” experience. My hubby and I enjoy bold wines and and craft beers with samples of food followed by a cigars from Great Discovery’s Inc. We played a little poker and enjoyed bold bites from featured restaurants, but the highlight of my evening was meeting with Chef Tristen Epps of the Marcus Samuelsson Group of New York City. Chef Epps delicious Oysters were the fan favorite and I inhaled at least two!
In addition to meeting the “man of the week” I also enjoyed a variety of scrumptious finger foods from Morton’s Grille – Woodlands, BRIO and the Woodlands Country Club.
Bulgarian Wine Tasting
The New Wines of Ancient Thrace tasting provided a peek into 6,000 years of ancient wine making. Ancient Thracians are believed to be the best ancient wine makers in the world. As these wines have yet to be released in the states, we were unable to take photos, as a matter of fact the wines were wrapped at each Woodlands Wine & Food Week event. We savored seven of the most popular vines of which are believed to date back to First century AD.
I can honestly say these wines have not only changed my life but have altered the way I view wine. You can taste the history and the age of the grapes. These aren’t some “baby grapes”, these are great great great…grandma and grandma grapes. Without a shadow of a doubt the Mavrud varietal is my favorite. “Mavrud” means dark or black and in wine it’s normally used for making dark wines with deep color. It’s huge in your mouth and touches every taste bud on your tongue. The Melnik vine red grape variety from the Struma Valley region, was another favorite. It’s texture what reminiscent of silk.
Sips, Suds and Tacos
Sips, Suds and Tacos is always a hit. It’s a Texas-size party, second to none. I crunched and munched the night away on gourmet tacos galore. Sips, Suds and Tacos is presented by Mexico and featured wine tasting, craft beers and a “Taco Takedown” competition in search of the tastiest taco. This event was jam packed and always provides me the perfect opportunity to let my hair down and enjoy some time with friends.
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Although Vertskebap won the Taco Takedown Champion, my favorite taco came from the Woodlands Country Club. Their Duck Confit Taco wrapped in a Nopal (cactus) tortilla topped with pico, avocado foam and white chocolate tomatillo salsa took my breath away. You had me at “avocado foam.”
Wine Rendezvous Grand Tasting & Chef Showcase
The grand finale to Woodlands Wine and Food week is by far my favorite. The Wine Rendezvous Grand Tasting & Chef Showcase is the ultimate adult evening during Wine & Food Week. Guests sampled delectable cuisine and hundreds of wines from chefs representing more than 60 of the nation’s top restaurants compete for the “Wine & Food Week’s Waterford Crystal Chef of Chefs Award” and a $5,000 cash and prize package.
The epicurean experience culminated with the “Just Desserts” contest, a confectionery competition to crown the night’s dessert extraordinaire. As a legit dessert “junkie” it’s only right that I highlight a few of my personal favorites from Latin Bites, KUU and Bob’s Steak and Chop House.
Latin Bites took home the trophy for the Just Desserts competition with their “Purple Corn Delight.” A no-bake cheesecake made with corn syrup, reduced purple corn juice. Served with a Cuzco corn sweet tamale cake. Topped with dehydrated lime meringues and powdered Andean corn kernel brittle.
KUU Restaurant offered a play on the classic pizza with their “Pizza Cheesecake“. A crunchy graham cracker crust topped with whipped mozzarella, fresh basil and a sweet/savory tomato jam.
The savory side of The Wine Rendezvous Grand Tasting & Chef Showcase wasn’t so bad either. There were a lot of new places that I didn’t get a chance to try out last year that were quite delightful. Robard’s Steak House, Strawberry Lonzino Scallops were perfectly seared and quite succulent.
IT’S A GUY THING – GALLERY
WINE RENDEZVOUS GRAND TASTING & CHEF SHOWCASE – GALLERY
