Hudson Valley Wine  And Food Festival              Rating:Excellent
Dutchess County Fair
September 6 and 7,  2014
Hours 11:00 A.M --6:00 P.M






Michael Babcock is an impresario of food and wine.  And with  extensive years of experience in the field he masterfully brings the food of fine restaurants, great wines, excellent craft beers, food trucks and top chefs all together very successfully at the Rhinebeck Hudson Wine and Food Festival.

The Hudson Valley Wine and Food Festival in Rhinebeck  New York is the piece de resistance for a town that is obsessed with food and wine.  The bucolic and charming town boast over twenty five eating establishment of which the best seven restaurants-- Le Petit Bistro, Liberty House, Arielle, Terrapin, Foster's, Gigi Tratoria, and Aroi are award winning eateries.  But  Mr. Babcock's Wine and Food Festival  most definately achieves the highest award for multi-cultural culinary excellence.  The culinary global exposure people take in at this gathering is a super special gastronomic treat.

Along with some fine restaurants' participation from the Hudson Valley who have kiosks at the fairgrounds

 --Savona Tratoria, with Chef Steven Savona,    Le Canard Enchaine with Chef Jean Jacques,Max's Memphis, Bull and Barrel, and Reggae Boy Café,  and other eateries that offer delicious food, the festival will feature live music and a huge selection of outstanding wines from New York State Wineries.   On September  6 and 7 there is great tasting of wines and food for all people to enjoy.

 The festival  will also have a few food truck vendors offering savory treats to eat

as well.  Try samplings from the food wagons:  Sweet Central serving delicious home made ice cream created by Michael Fertucci,  How we Roll, with a smart concoctions of egg rolls like the Mac and Cheese.   Sherri's Crab Cakes, The Aegean, serving delicious, tasty gyros.   Handsome Devil BBQ, cooking some great tasting spare ribs, and Aurora's Gypsy Café, serving a great tasting falafel and chicken tagine.    Overall the  truck food is very very good. The Restaurant Tent has Savona Trattoria's famous tender and delicious Meatballs in a hearty and succulent sauce, And Le Canard Enchaine is presenting a Duck Confit,  and a very cheesy risotto.    The festival also has many kiosks throughout the fairgrounds of Fine Arts and Crafts.   And booths offering Artisanal cheeses:  Casa Del  Caciocavallo, Palatine Cheese, and Goats and Gourmets.  And booths representing Cider and Beer Breweries: like Brooklyn Brewery, Hyde Park Brewery, whose excellent BIG EASY BLONDE beer is a true winner at the fair and Bull and Barrel with an excellent IPA. And in the department of  spices:   Moroccan Saffron ; a wonderfully high quality, aromatic and organic saffron  sold by Rachid Saad from Arlington, Virginia.

There will also be food demonstrations by award winning chefs at the Fair  D Pavillions--Chef Vincent Tropepe,   Chef Kevin Des Chenes, cooking Thresher Shark with a savory mushroom risotto, enhanced with a  Keel Vodka, ginger, strawberry sauce  that is super good.   and also Chefs Cyndi Stanimirov and Amanda Giblin presenting their own creations.  This year there are over seventy top wineries from all over the country ---the Finger Lake region, Long Island, and other states. Some of the New York finest wineries present are Millbrook, Sheldrake Point, Hunt Country, Keuka Springs, Pazdar, Brotherhood, Whitecliff Vinyards, Warwick Valley, Atwater Estates, Cascade Mountain Winery, Benmarl, Tousey winery, and Montezuma winery. And an extraordinary cidery, Yankee Folly founded by Edmond Tomaselli serving a very elegant and great tasting cider.   

New York State is the third largest wine producer in the U.S.A.  So its befitting to have a great selection from New York.

 The wines represented here have won many prestigious medals, accolades, and memorable recognition in national and world competition.  Because of the beautiful and peaceful setting of Rhinebeck and prestigious participation of many restaurants, wineries, high end vendors,and food merchants,--  the Rhinebeck Wine Food Festival attracts renowned chefs, celebrities, world nobility --Spanish, French, English and Cuban, and super knowledgeable onephiles, and food and wine gourmands from all over the globe.  As a result Rhinebeck Wine and Food Festival  is becoming more and more world  known.

Michael Babcock, producer of the event and owner of Wine racks.com, -- and Grape Events Partners, the key organizers and sponsor of the Festival have created a smart and very attractive wine and food extravaganza at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds.  He and staff member Jennifer Cristaldi  have been a major force in promoting the festival in the last 12 years of its existence in the Hudson Valley.  Accordingly Mr Michael. Babcock  says,  " Here is a celebration of wine, food, and music all set within the natural, timeless beauty of the Catskill countryside at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, for all people to come and enjoy."

And the well maintained and clean facilities, buildings and pavilions of the beautiful Fairgrounds, under the astudeness, and guardianship of the Fairground Agricultural Society and management of Andy Imperati and staff  is sure to provide a thououghly inviting and safe ambiance for all present to have a delightful time. 
I've attended and covered some of the best Wine and Food Festivals in the World:  The Aspen, Colorado. The Madrid Gourmets Festival, and Barcelona Wine and Food Festival, Spain. The Miami, Florida, The St. Michaels, Maryland, The New York, and The Bordeaux Wine and Food, France, but I'm really very personally delighted that the Hudson Valley Rhinebeck Wine and Food Festival is one of the most affordable, great outdoors event, well orchestrated and gastronomically superb and pleasing wine and food festival around.     

Baron Corso de Palenzuela von Habsburg is an international restaurant critic, food, wine, beer, and chocolate connoisseur and chef who has written extensively on food and wine for leading world publications.  He resides in Virginia, New York, and Spain. And can be reached at 845-706-1244.