SMOKED! VIP/Early: A Whiskey, Wine & Global Smoked Cuisine Experience

Gain Entry One Hour Early and Access to Special Bottles at This Premier Whiskey, Wine & Food Experience

***Early Bird tickets and bundles on sale October 17.  Limited quantity available while supplies last. 

We're kicking it up a notch in 2025 with a brand new venue, refreshed beverage content and a curated selection of global smoked food representing an array of regional and international cuisines. 

Beautiful Dewey Gottwald Center, a sleek steel and glass structure, is the new home for SMOKED!  In addition to a the 80+ whiskeys - many of which you will be able to taste and buy to take home - we will curate a selection of highly regarded wines from Virginia AND our 2025 ‘Regions of Emphasis’, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Sonoma, CA.

Additionally, we will be introducing a select number of cognacs, and smoked/whiskey-barrel aged craft beers.

Join us for a smoke-kissed walk around the country and the world with this uniquely crafted signature event which emphasizes top-shelf whiskeys and other spirits primarily from Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Scotland.

SMOKED! kicks off the Expo's biggest weekend with this unforgettable night of indulgence and laid-back luxury, which also includes an incredible silent auction, and live music.

Foodies, wine lovers, and whiskey enthusiasts will love this event.

General Entry into SMOKED!

SMOKED! has a general entry time of 7pm, if you don't want to enter an hour earlier at 6pm with this VIP/Early ticket.   Please check out the details here.

Ticket Package Availability

This event can be purchased a la carte or as part of one ticket package - 'VIP Weekend’, which you can check out on the Ticket Packages page.  

With Your Ticket, You Will:

• Gain entry one hour early, taste well over 100 premium beverages including whiskeys, other barrel-aged spirits, and wines, plus enjoy exclusive access to special VIP whiskeys and wines, as long as they last, THROUGHOUT the three-hour-and-forty-five-minute session
   
• Savor an expanded menu of smoked and some non-smoked cuisine from various regions of the U.S. and around the world.  Food selections will satisfy both meat lovers and vegetarians.
   
• Enjoy the opportunity to buy virtually all Virginia whiskeys to take home.
   
• Enjoy an extraordinary silent and live Auction and bid on items quickly and easily with your mobile phone.
   
• Enjoy choosing either a Stolzle crystal whiskey glass or a Stolzle crystal wine glass to use at the event and take home.
   
• Enjoy complimentary spirit-check, which will hold bottles of whiskey you purchase until you leave the event, and coat check services.
   
• Enjoy complimentary artisan water throughout the event.
   
• Enjoy using seating at tables and cocktail rounds located throughout the event space.
   
• Enjoy a covered, designated smoking area conveniently located just outside the event space.

Important Information

• *All spirits and wine tables will end tastings at 9:45 p.m., fifteen minutes before the end of the event.  However, some of those tables will still remain open only for closed bottle sales if they are a Virginia distillery.
• Only 21 years or older are permitted to enter the event.
• Smart casual or smart chic attire recommended.
• All inclusive.

SAMPLE SMOKED! Menu from the 2024 SMOKED! Event

• Smoked blue fish over warm potato salad with celery sprouts served on bamboo Asian style
• Tandoori marinated woodfire grilled chicken served with rice on lettuce wrap
• Harvest lentil salad with butternut squash, kale, pomegranate arils, feta and balsamic-fig vinaigrette
• Smoked duck reuben with duck fat fried potato tots
• Smoked curried peach skewers
• Woodfire hoagie with tender sliced beef
• Hatch chili Mac n' cheese
• Pork belly burnt ends
• Smoked deviled eggs filled with spiced garlic aioli yolks and topped with baby heirloom tomatoes, smoky candied bacon and micro greens
• Moroccan smoked leg of lamb with grilled vegetable couscous, pickled red onion, cucumber salsa and pomegranate
• Smoked duck confit and goat cheese wonton
• Smoked pastrami carving station
• Smoked chicken salad
• BBQ baby back pork ribs
• Smoked Texas rope sausage, pork and beef, mild spice with hints of maple, sauce served on the side
• BBQ portobello, smoked then grilled. VEGAN. Meat eaters will never know it’s a mushroom!
• Fresh collards braised with smoked pork
• Smoked beef cheek confit taco
• Woodfire pizzas  and woodfire hushpuppies created fresh onsite, multiple varieties, try them all!
• Green beans tossed in a brown butter sauce
• Peter Chang special Szechuan smoked chicken with vegetables
• Premium deli smokehouse meat selection (Publix)
• Smoked Use cheesecake
• Red Truck Bakery Applejack Butter Pecan Bundt Cake
• Red Truck Bakery Lexington Kentucky Bourbon Cake
• Red Truck Bakery Alma Hackney Rum Cake