Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival is one of my favorite events of the year. The festival runs from late August to mid-November. The World Showcase has added countries during this event, allowing guests to sample even more food and drink from around the world. Guests can receive a special passport with each stop listed, and what food and drink items are offered at each location. Upon receiving my passport, I was intrigued by two little words listed under specific countries: wine flight.
What’s a Wine Flight?
I quickly discovered that the wine flight is a special menu item for the International Food and Wine Festival. For this flight, guests receive three samples of wine made in the countries represented by the booths in the World Showcase. This is a budget-friendly option to allow the most wine sampling within one day at the park. Each stop costs between $5 and $10 depending on the expense of the wines offered, but most of them were around $6.50 for a sample of three 1oz samples. By participating, I sampled 21 different wines from 6 different countries!
Participating Countries
The International Food and Wine Festival has locations offering food and drink from 20 different countries around the world. The wine flight samples wines from 6 of those countries in the festival, although every country offers alcoholic beverages. Wine flight countries when I visited included: Africa, Australia, Germany, Greece, The United States, and Spain.
My Favorite Countries
I enjoy sweet wines much more than dry, so my preferences may not match yours. However, the flight includes a broad range of whites, reds, and rose’s ranging from the sweetest Rieslings to the driest noirs. Each comes with a card listing the country as well as all 3 types of wine samples.
My favorite flight was the Riesling flight in Germany. I love Riesling, so I enjoyed all three of the samples I was given. However, my favorite wine I sampled in any of the flights was a sweet red wine located in Africa called Jam Jar Sweet Shiraz. It had the fruity flavors of a full red wine, without the dryness that I typically do not enjoy.
Notable Wine Flight Stops
There were two booths participating in the wine flight that were not associated with a specific country that should not be overlooked. My favorite of the two, The Wine and Dine Studio, offered an Artist Palette of Wine and Cheese. This artistic plate came with 3 delicious artisan cheese samples paired with 3 different kinds of wine. The pairings went wonderfully together, bringing out the best flavors in both the cheese and the wine. The cheeses were even topped with special sauces that added even more flavor in the sampling!
The second non-country booth participating in the wine flight is located in the Festival Center Wine Shop. The Wine Shop offers 3 different wine flights: white, red, and pinot noir. I chose only the white flight and was given 3 delicious samples of white wine. This stop should be last for those participating in an around the world wine flight, as every wine offered in the flight from all 6 countries can be found in the Wine Shop to take home!
A Great Boozy Day
By sampling the wines and foods from the different countries, and enjoying Epcot’s rides and atmosphere, I thoroughly enjoyed my first day at the International Food and Wine Festival. Above all, I highly suggest any wine lovers splurge on a trip to Epcot for the wine flight experience.
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