Soft-openings, wine tastings, product launches—a major part of staying on top of nightlife is sampling tasty new libations. So when we heard that the Food Network Wine & Food Festival was coming to NYC this year (after eight successful years in South Beach), we immediately started prepping our livers. At last Friday’s Grand Tasting, a sprawling array of wine and spirits brands supplied by Southern Wine & Spirits plus food from a host of restaurants and suppliers filled a tent stretching down the pier at Hudson River Park. So what’s it like to sample more than 100 of the finest liquids around in a three-hour span? Here’s a hazy chronological account:

2:00pm

“Yeah, it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” says the first bartender to serve us a drink at the lively Puerto Rican tent at the festival’s entrance, after we mention that we want to “start slow” with a fruity punch versus a straight shot of Don Q rum. These words become a mantra until we immediately forget them in the main tasting tent, an overwhelming supermarket-like setup that seemed to stretch into infinity. Many of the Southern wines—viognier, syrah, pinot grigio, rioja, prosecco—do a good job of standing up to their California counterparts.

	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9	Next Page >>