LIFESTYLE
DOWNTOWN FLORENCE
MARCH 31-APRIL 2 The Florence Wine & Food Festival, a weekend of five food- and wine-focused events benefitting Help 4 Kids Florence, returns to Downtown March 31-April 2! “We wanted to come back strong after the pandemic, so we’ve added two all-new events and brought in some special guests,” said Festival Director Tamara Kirven. The fun kicks off Thursday evening, March 31st, with a casual outdoor party, “Meat and Meander,” taking place in and around the Waters Building from 6:30 – 8:30pm, and featuring eight Pee Dee restaurants, serving up tastes from grills and smokers, and a boiled peanuts cauldron manned by Charleston-based cookbook authors, Matt Lee and Ted Lee—also known as the “Lee Bros.”—who are playing hosts for the Festival. Bluegrass band The Bluestone Ramblers will perform, and Seminar Brewing will be serving up a custom beer made especially for the occasion. For wine-lovers, Micky Finn’s will provide wines paired by local wine maven Sam Tinsley. Also, back by popular demand is Friday night’s Sip + Savor Wine Stroll, an event that sends guests on an itinerary visiting downtown Florence’s finest independent retailers from 6pm – 9pm, where they can shop while nibbling on bites prepared by Pee Dee area chefs and sipping wines paired by Holt and Tinsley. A VIP after-party at Victors features further wines selected by Morning News wine columnist Dennis Fraley, paired with bites by Victors executive chef Cooper Thomas. As in past years, the Festival will feature a California winery. For 2022, Paso Robles winery Clos Solène will be onsite every day of the festival, with winemaker Guillaume Fabre pairing the wines served at “The Final Pour,” the four-course finale dinner event Saturday evening. 20
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March 2022
“We’ve been fortunate to get top-quality wineries to Florence to participate in the Festival, and this year is no different,” Festival board member Tim Norwood said. “Clos Solène produces truly extraordinary wines, with very limited volume. To have Guillaume and his team pouring his wines during the festival is such a unique opportunity.” Norwood also noted one of the two all-new events for 2022 will be a wine-tasting class Saturday morning at 11am at Victors called “Passport to Paso Robles.” The class will be hosted by Food & Wine Magazine’s Executive Wine Editor, Ray Isle, one of the nation’s top wine experts. Isle will introduce guests to the California wine region Clos Solène calls home, and which, according to Isle, is “one of the most dynamic and exciting regions in California wine right now.”
