We have to thank our friends at Foodbuzz for tickets to the Washington, DC International Wine and Food Festival. It was the 10th annual and, while we’ve each lived in DC for close to 10 years, neither of us had been before. The wine festival was a two day event (we went the second day) with lots of booths pouring lots of different wines. And lots of people. LOTS of people.

The sheer mass of people was the main drawback to the event. There were times you could barely walk down an isle or get close to a booth to sample the wine. There was also a rediculously long line to sample small cubes Cabot cheese. Cabot cheese is good and all, but not worth standing in a 50-person line.

Despite the excessive crowds, we were able to sample some really good wine. (Note: There are no bottles for sale at this event.) The Argentinian wines were a stand out, including the malbecs from Luigi Bosca and Don Miguel Gascon. We’ve also been into zinfandels recently and sampled two delicious ones at the festival – Alexander Valley Vineyards Redemption Zin and Klinker Brink Old Ghost Old Vine Zinfandel. The latter is from 90 year old vines.We also liked the wines from Evergreen Vineyards from Oregon; we’ll be visiting Oregon in April and hope to do a little wine tour.

To cleanse our palete, we headed over to the Dogfish Head booth and sample some Midus Touch and 60 Minute IPA. The Dogfish Head booth was right near McDonalds, which was giving out samples of the new McCafe drinks…hot chocolate, lattes etc. (DCer’s – supposedly the McDonalds on New York Ave is already serving up these cafe drinks and the one at 18th and Columbia will be soon.)

We found a few delicious bites of food to sustain us throughout the afternoon. Samples from Biscotti Goddess were yummy…and with 12 different biscotti flavors, there is something for everyone. Tillen Farms had several different samples of pickled vegetables, including green beans, asparagus and peppers. While the Pear Bureau Northwest wasn’t giving out pear samples, we did pick up a handy pear, cheese and wine selector that lets you know what kind of pear, cheese and wine go together.

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute had salmon pasta salad to sample and recipe cards for different Alaskan seafood…can’t wait to try some of the recipes. Todd’s Dirt Seasoning Company had tasty seasons that can be used as a dry rub or to make dips. Finally, the Embassy of Chile was offering samples of an exotic Chilean fruit…Carica, which grows in the semi-desert valleys in the northern part of the country. According to the little pamphlet, Carica goes well with prosciutto and cheese. They also had some canned razor clams (in the photo above), which were really good drizzled in olive oil.

Bottom line: Some very good wine and tasty food to sample. Too many people. Probably not worth the $85 ticket price.