Boston Wine Expo: January 24 & 25

The 18th Annual Boston Wine Expo will be held at the Seaport World Trade Center on Saturday, January 24 and Sunday, January 25, 2009. This is one of the largest trade and consumer wine events in the country.

The Grand Tasting showcases over 450 international and domestic wineries from 13 countries pouring over 1,800 different wines. Special features include an exclusive Grand Cru Wine Lounge where reserve level wines will be featured in a separate setting for the most serious wine enthusiast.

There are also numerous seminars being held, for all levels of wine-lovers, led by world-renowned wine experts such as Wine Spectator’s Gloria Maroti Frazee, Bernard de Laage de Meus of Chateau Palmer, Gary Vaynerchuk self-trained wine expert and star of WineLibraryTV.com, Pilar Garcia-Granero enologist and president of Wines from Navarra, Quartly Review of Wines Editor Randy Sheahan, Al Marzi of Harpoon Brewery, and President of Aquitaine Wine Company Jean-Christophe Calvet, and public television’s culinary experts Lidia Bastianich, Ming Tsai, Martin Yan, Sara Moulton, and Christina Pirello headline the growing list of chefs participating in the celebrity chef cooking demonstrations.

Consumer Show Hours: 1:00 pm- 5:00 pm daily
Consumer Ticket Prices: Saturday Single Day--$85 prior to Jan. 17/$95 after Jan. 17
Sunday Single Day--$75 prior to Jan 17/$85 after Jan 17
Two Day Ticket--$140 prior to Jan 17/$160 after Jan 17
Grand Cru Wine Lounge: $175 at all times
Seminars and other events priced separately

Information: 1-877-946-3976 or www.wineexpoboston.com

I have attended a number of these Boston Wine Expos and you can read my review of last year's event. The Expo has its good and bad points and certainly needs some restructuring to better minimize its faults. It gets too crowded, too many people are there to just get drunk, and it can be confusing to navigate the various tables. On the other hand, you do have the opportunity to try lots of different wines, from all over the world.

As the time for the Expo draws closer, I will provide some suggestions for making your trip to the Expo more fulfilling. I will be attending the Expo this year so maybe I will meet some of you there.