Key West Food & Wine Festival: Duval Uncorked

Saturday’s big event was Duval Uncorked, a street fair of wine and food stretching down Duval Street from Caroline Street to the Atlantic.  I checked in and started visiting the first few locations, but could not figure out how to write about this event.  What would my angle be? 

Then I started talking to John and Pam (a foodie tour guide from Portland, Maine (MaineFoodieTours.com)) about the festival, foodie tours and just how many restaurants there are in Portland.  And thus I found my angle:  to do what I seem to do best – just talk to people, hear their stories, opinions, insights, and write about them!  Thanks, John and Pam!

Forty-four scheduled stops were listed in the guide to this event.  Wine tables were set up in art galleries, home furnishings stores, clothing stores, restaurants, and in whatever type of business that was interested in hosting a stop on the tour.  Now, I am just not capable of tasting 44 different wine and spirits and still managing to continue walking.  A Herculean task to have visited them all, I say!  However, I had fun speaking to the people I did meet.

When I got to South Pointe Gallery, home to some gorgeous vintage posters, there was a line running right out the door.  Inside I spoke with Ken Lewis, regional manager for Terlato Wines and tasted their Terlato Family Vineyards Pinot Grigio, a more rounded tasting varietal than I expected to find.  This roundness, Ken informed me, was the result of the wine resting on the lees (this is where the dead yeast cells are left in the vat and they continue to add flavors to the wine).

A few stops later I found myself at Sweet Tea's facing a very mean bartender, Tom Luna.  Actually, he is a very funny bartender.  There I saw another very long line waiting for a taste of Sweet Tea's very popular lobster mac ‘n cheese.

While I chatted with Tom, he introduced me to Jim Brush, the president of Key West Key Lime Pie Co. just next door.  Jim mentioned having been on The Early Show to talk about Key Lime pies, and we reminisced about New York.  He said he’d heard that Duval Uncorked was sold out at 800 tickets (I didn’t verify this)!  No wonder he had already run out of the key lime cannoli they were offering!

I then meandered up to Flamingo Crossing, an ice cream shop, where I tasted a Malbec/Riesling sorbet which I was told is made fresh on-site daily.  Very nice!

Across the street, I chatted with Michael, one of the bartenders at the pool bar at Orchard Key Inn.  When I lived here this place was not pretty, but Michael said that a few years back they gutted it down to the concrete and now it is really lovely.

With my energies waning, I headed off in search of dinner at the bar at Antonia’s (manned by TK, a well-known Key West bartender), and I wondered how the people who completed the entire circuit were faring!

Sidewalk service at Nine One Five