Ever notice that Christmas seems to come upon us earlier every year?  Used to be, it started the day after Thanksgiving, but now, some of hear jingle bells as early as October (and others of us hear them all the time).

 Well, the Southwest Florida Wine and Food Fest is a lot like that.  Two years ago, we started planning in October.  Last year, it was August.  But today, June 10, we had our first wine committee meeting of the year.  Already.

 Fortunately, a lot of great people have offered to help with the task this year:  Dan Creighton, Elaine Hawkins, Kristen Palazzo, and Nikki Sidebottom are with us, and my wine buddy Marshall Hanno came to the meeting already having put a great deal of thought into our plans.  He even printed up handouts.

 The main topic of conversation was how can we make the experience of the wines and the cuisine even better in February 2011.  Kristen and Nikki, who are sales representatives with major distributors in the area, had some ideas about which vintners may be interested in participating, and which might return from last year.  Of course, many of those decisions are related to the Friday night dinner plans, and the invited chefs.  So today’s meeting was very Big Picture.

 However (and this is one of my favorite parts), we are already beginning to select wines for the Grand Tasting, and are receiving attractive offers from the distributors.  So we’re making progress in several areas.

 Through the summers, we’ll probably meet with the chef/dinner committee and the wine committee at least once a month, so watch for updates right here.

 Cheers.

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