Celebrate The Massachusetts Dining Scene At This Year’s Nantucket Wine & Food Festival

07.05.2024 - 13:17 / forbes.com

Rife with pristine beaches and sprawling sand dunes, Nantucket has served as one of the Bay State’s foremost tourist destinations for well over a century—and to sweeten the deal, this scenic island also comes complete with a thriving food scene for visitors to enjoy. Seafood reigns supreme around the island, with no shortage of classic Massachusetts dishes up for grabs spanning from lobster rolls to New England clam chowder, while high-end wines can be encountered all throughout the island’s many restaurants. Yet for those who want to experience the region’s prowess at both drinking and dining in one fell swoop, there’s no better event than the annual Nantucket Wine & Food Festival.

First launched in 1996, this lauded celebration draws visitors in droves to explore the island’s culinary prowess, with several thousand guests set to arrive on its sandy shores from May 15th to 19th. Given Nantucket’s close proximity to Boston, attendees can expect to see a wealth of renowned chefs from all across the city, with this year’s talent ranging from Woods Hill Pier 4’s Charlie Foster to David Daniels, Executive Chef at the lavish Boston Harbor Hotel—but of course, it’s not just restaurants that are represented throughout the event.

As one can guess from the name, wine plays a major role in the festivities, with world-class vintners and experts coming from both near and far to attend. South America’s rich bounty of Carménère and Malbec can be discovered firsthand during a deep dive on both Chilean and Argentinian wine, with polished producers like VIK Wine—a state-of-the-art facility operating just south of Santiago—and Mendoza’s Catena Zapata both in attendance. Alongside these two nations, attendees can also look forward to representation from France’s Champagne region, the South Island of New Zealand and South Africa’s stunning Stellenbosch district. And of course, California wines abound throughout the festival, with whites, reds and rosés from Napa and Sonoma all up for grabs.

As an added bonus, the Nantucket Wine & Food Festival also offers ample opportunity for educating oneself about the food and drink industry as a whole thanks to its many seminars and speaker series. For any serious seafood fans, the SHUCK IT! Oyster & Wine Seminar offers insight into the delicate art of pairing shellfish with white wine, while the Climate, Sustainability, the Future of Wine panel draws experts from across the globe to discuss how winemaking is evolving to minimize carbon emissions and embrace renewable energy in the production process. And for any night owls, the Stars, Sips & Sweets event is an absolute must, providing guests with an opportunity to taste flavorful wine and learn about the inner workings of the cosmos