Vallarta Wine Fest - A Cultural Winefest!
From February 27 to March 1st Vallarta is one of the best places in the world.
Not only Vallarta is a favorite dining destination, but these days twenty of our leading restaurants will have special menus and wine selections to accompany them.
The art of “pairing” wine selections to the different delicacies featured in a menu in Spanish is called “maridaje” a form of marriage, and this marriage can turn a dining experience into a most sensual and romantic celebration.
If this was not the culmination for the gourmet in you, Vallarta is offering a series of condiments to go with this Winefest that, to my taste, combine perfectly with great dining and good life.
 The first night at the Hola Hotel, we had a surprising performance by a group of excellent musicians, Pneumus treated us to some great jazz, which started to evolve into music they could extract from the most unexpected items, among them a bongo made out of cooking utensils, a hose, an aluminum ice tray, an air pump and lots of even weirder stuff. They played sitting, standing, walking, running and covering every single corner of the room; they even took us on a railroad trek that included an underwater portion with sea monsters, a wreck and more.
I don’t think anybody had an idea of what this was going to turn into, we danced and laughed and applauded madly to great music, effects, humor, and whatever Peumus stands for.
That same night prizes were awarded to three compositions inspired by, you guessed it, wine. The first prize went to a poet from the state of Guanajuato for his piece “Manhattan”, the author recited his poem live, acknowledging that Manhattan is the name of a bar in his hometown.
 The second prize went to poet Mario Villalvazo and his beautiful piece “Pluma de Angel” (Angel’s Plume).
And the third prize went to our Eduardo Gómez Encarnación, I do not need to recall the name of his most sensual and mythical piece, we are all very proud of him and his family of poets and writers and their contribution to our taste for culture.
The second night at Hotel Velas, the group Volta - Past Centuries, from Guadalajara, transported us eleven centuries back in time to music of the Middle East in the tenth century, the ensemble, with antique flutes, cymbals, drums and strings, going from guitar to violins all the way to the hurdy-gurdy or wheel fiddle.
The magnificent voices of Angélica and Vladimir, made the journey across the Mediterranean, through Europe and all the way to Colonial Mexico, singing in Náhuatl, a most delightful and enchanting experience.
 A nine century memory of culture without overloading? This is real magic!
The third night all of Vallarta is invited to our open air theater, located between the ocean and the main square with the Jazz Troker Group and much more.
To wrap it up, on the last night it’s everybody’s fiesta, band music, wine and hors d’oeuvres at Plaza Lázaro Cárdenas (at the end of Olas Altas street, next to Los Muertos Beach).
And someone’s got to survive to tell the story, so you may be hearing more from me and from the Winefest, because, in Vallarta: La Cultura está de Fiesta!
And there is always something special happening! Email to a friend
Eduardo Rincón Gallardo
E-mail: toureps@prodigy.net.mx
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