The Virginia Wine Expo (VWE) – A Unique Event

Save the date!  On February 16 and 17, 2008 the Virginia Wine Expo (VWE) will be coming to the Greater Richmond Convention Center in Richmond, Virginia.  And it’s much more than your typical, run-of-the-mill wine festival.

For starters, Virginia wine is the main event.  Virginia is staking its claim as one of the top tier wine regions in the U.S. and the world.  Travel & Leisure magazine in its July 2007 issue says: Virginia is one of the five “newest, ready-for-primetime wine regions from around the world.”

Also, the VWE is about Virginia food.  Dozens of Virginia’s Finest specialty food purveyors will be sampling and selling their food and some of Richmond’s finest dining establishments will be sampling too. 

The VWE will be held indoors in the well-appointed Greater Richmond Convention Center, where we can promise that the weather will be absolutely perfect.  More importantly, you’ll have an opportunity to taste 200 wines from dozens of wineries, buy glasses of wine and purchase bottles and cases to go. 

In addition, there will be chef demonstrations, special wine and food seminars and raffles galore.  How would you like to win a weekend getaway, jewelry, a Swiss time-piece, dinner at some of the finest restaurants in the area and more? 

Why the VWE Was Started

There are several reasons.

Richmond lacks a classy, fun, food and wine event that showcases Virginia’s finest wines, foods, recipes, and chefs on a grand scale. The VWE will be the Virginia's premier trade and consumer wine event of the year.  It will offer the biggest selection of wine and fine food you’ll find at any event in Richmond – and at a very reasonable price. It will also offer the Virginia wine trade an opportunity for extended networking.

Further, Virginia wine is hot (there are over 130 wineries and counting) and so is wine tourism.  Virginia’s wineries are getting attention from major wine, travel and leisure publications as well as from some of the nation’s preeminent wine critics.  However, Virginia still doesn’t have a major, upscale, indoor event that it can use to elevate the prestige of its wine industry to consumers, the trade, the media and government.  Well, here it is.