Do you have a nose for fine wine? A taste for flavorful Hawaii cuisine?

If so, and you happen to be on Maui this week, expect your inner epicure to highly recommend — and maybe even insist on — attending the 30th annual Kapalua Wine & Food Festival, slated to get under way at west Maui’s posh Ritz-Carlton Kapalua Resort on Thurs., June 9.  

The four-day event, dubbed A Toast to 30, will focus on Hawaii regional cuisine. Among the highlights: this year’s “Grand Tasting — Maui Grown” set for 6 p.m. Fri., June 10, will spotlight more than 200 wines from around the world and showcase Maui agriculture. Featured festival chef Peter Merriman — owner of Merriman’s Restaurant (locations on Maui and the Big Island) and the Monkeypod Kitchen (Maui)  — will serve up specialty handcrafted regional cuisine ranging from Maui Cattle Co. filet of beef to old-school Hawaiian chocolate cream pie at his “Farm Fresh Fest” event, slated to get under way at 1 p.m. Sun., June 12.

Longtime festival host Master Sommelier Fred Dame, will return to the festival with several top winemakers, master sommeliers and celebrated chefs for wine tastings and gourmet-cooking sessions. The festival’s master sommeliers lineup includes Geoff Kruth, Rob Bigelow, Jay Fletcher, Michael Jordan, Andrew McNamara and Larry Stone.

Throughout the weekend, festivalgoers will be taking part in interactive wine seminars. These four sessions will involve tasting as well as a chance to pick up expert advice.

• Three Decades of Reserve Cab, set for 1:30 p.m. Fri., June 10, will feature exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon selections from the 1980s, ’90s and the first decade of the new millennium.

• Pinots Meet Cheese, an innovative pairings seminar, 11 a.m. Sat., June 11, will be hosted by cheese master Kent Torry of the Cheese Shop in Carmel, Calif.

• A Drive Up Highway 101, 1 p.m. Sat. June 11, aims to take wine buffs on a virtual tour of grapes growing along the Pacific Coast Highway.

• You say Shiraz I say Syrah, 11 a.m. Sun. June 12, offers a friendly dark-skinned grape showdown between Australia and the United States.   

Visit the Kapalua Wine & Food Festival website for more event details, including and ticket prices. For a complete schedule of festival events, click here.

Have you attended the festival in past years? Share your own highlights on our HAWAII Magazine Facebook page. Will you be attending this year? We’d like to hear from you. HAWAII Magazine will be on Maui, from Friday evening’s Grand Tasting dinner through Sunday evening’s Maui Seafood Festival, the popular finale which will spotlight several of Hawaii’s top chefs competing for “Best of Fest” honors.    




Check out these related HawaiiMagazine.com posts:
Kapalua Wine & Food Festival begins on Maui this week. We'll be there!
Kapalua Wine & Food Festival 2008
Scenes from the 30th anniversary of west Maui's Kapalua Wine & Food Festival