Taste of Vail's Mountaintop Picnic a 'dizzying,
dazzling affair'
VAIL,
Colo. - Anyone
who's experienced America's premier springtime
wine and culinary festival would agree its signature
event, the Mountaintop Picnic, is the ultimate
in "haute cuisine."
Preparations
already are underway on top of Vail Mountain,
at 10,350 above sea level, for the annual culinary
extravaganza, where extraordinary food and fine
wines are on offer Friday, April 7, from 12:30
p.m. to 3 p.m. Amid spectacular springtime views
of the Colorado High Country, it's all part of
Taste of Vail, serving Vail Valley charities for
16 years.
"The
picnic is a dizzying, dazzling affair," the
Tampa Tribune reported from a previous Mountaintop
Picnic. "Hundreds of happy skiers line up
at the various booths as chefs in white toques
dish up samples of grilled salmon, shrimp etoufee,
buffalo chili and double chocolate torte as everyone
mingles in the midday sun."
With
chefs from 17 Vail Valley restaurants serving
samples of their best dishes and winemakers and
owners from 60 world-renowned wineries pouring
their finest, the Mountain Picnic is "dazzling,"
indeed.
Picnic-goers
with tickets can arrive at the picnic site - a
one-of-a-kind snow arena west of Eagle's Nest
with two-story-high walls for shelter - on skis
or snowboards; or they can take the gondola to
the top of the mountain free of charge, loading
as early as 11:45 a.m. Snowcats, some with heated
cabins, are on hand to shuttle picnic-goers between
Eagles Nest and the picnic.
"This
picnic is like nothing else I've ever seen,"
Doug Margerum, a California winemaker, told Wine
Spectator magazine last year. "It unites
wine and skiing, two of my passions."
Taste
of Vail was created in 1990 by a group of Vail
Valley restaurateurs as a marketing event to showcase
the resort's world-class restaurants. Now the
internationally famous community boasts more than
20 Wine Spectator award-winning restaurants -
the most of any resort community in the United
States. This year, as many as 5,000 attendees
and volunteers are expected to participate in
the 16th annual Taste of Vail, with chefs from
more than three dozen local restaurants and winemakers
and/or owners of five dozen wineries from around
the world participating.
This
year's Mountaintop Picnic is included in Taste
of Vail's $375 Full Event package; tickets for
the picnic can be purchased individually, however,
for $110. Guests are encouraged to wear clothing
appropriate for any conditions, as the Mountaintop
Picnic goes on, snow or shine. Previous picnics
have enjoyed sunny skies and unseasonably warm
spring conditions; others have endured snow, high
winds, hale, even lightning.
This
year, the picnic offers up-close-and-personal
glimpses of the newest luxury supercar in the
Bentley Motors lineup: the new, continuous-all-wheel-drive,
12-cylinder, twin-turbo Continental Flying Spur.
"This
is by far the best picnic in the world - without
ants," says Kevin Foley, co-chairman of the
picnic for the past 15 years.
Foley
and his trusty co-chairman, Bud O'Halloran, supervise
a crew of 30 volunteers on a mission of erecting
the picnics various tents, tables and temporary
kitchens in two days - then clearing it all off
the mountain by dark the evening of the event.
"We
put in a whole lot of work into a picnic that
only lasts two and half hours," says O'Halloran.
"And when it snows, things get really challenging."
Foley
and O'Halloran proudly say the Mountaintop Picnic
is the "best event" of the four-day
Taste of Vail festival, April 5 through 9. It
would never happen, however, without the help
of Vail Resorts, which donates hundreds of man-hours,
teams of snowcats and the use of the Eagle Bahn
Gondola to the event, they add.
"The
Mountaintop Picnic is a great tradition. In some
ways, it's the community's official acknowledgement
spring has arrived," says Bill Jensen, co-president
of Vail Resorts' Mountain Division. "The
Taste of Vail, in general, is a celebration of
everything good about ski season. And it's the
level of energy that makes it unique."
Taste
of Vail is a charitable, nonprofit organization.
Over the past 15 years, the festival has contributed
more than $300,000 to Vail Valley charities. This
year's proceeds will be evenly distributed among:
the newly created Taste of Vail Educational Scholarship,
a joint effort with ProStart and Eagle County;
the Vail Valley Youth Foundation's soccer program;
and other local charitable programs that otherwise
would not be able to continue without additional
funding.
For
more information about the 16th annual Taste of
Vail, or to buy tickets, visit
http://www.tasteofvail.com
or call 970-926-5665.
Media
contact:
Stephen Lloyd Wood / Media liaison
16th annual Taste of Vail
(970) 949-9774
press@tasteofvail.com
www.tasteofvail.com