Boston Wine Expo

This past wine expo 2016 was my 10^th year attending. I always have a good time and the vibe and atmosphere is usually one I enjoy.
I only really have one gripe — The organizers should lower the Sunday Grand Tasting Price due to the fact come 3 oclock on Sundays 30% or more of the vendors have either ran out of product or just pack up and leave all together.
I usually try to attend the Saturday one because this is something I have run into several times when I do end up at the Sunday one. It just gets to be a pain because once vendors start shutting down waits become longer and it just gets to be a tad bit annoying.
Other than that, I would recommend this event to anyone who asks. It blows the Wine Riot out of the water.

I purchased the VIP tickets for the Sunday session as a Valentine’s Day gift for my girlfriend and myself. This was our first time going to the Expo and it was fantastic but I was underwhelmed by VIP experience. (side note: if you’re hoping for street parking near the convention center, show up early and be prepared to take a few laps around the area. Otherwise just pay the ~20−25 dollars for parking in a garage)
Most of the vendors were very knowledgeable about their products (food, wine, or otherwise). Only a few seemed unenthusiastic but I probably would be as well after dealing with drunk people for two days. There was way more food and wine you could possibly try in 4 hours so once you get the program, pick out a few things you definitely want to try.
Maybe because I didn’t have to wait in a huge line for general admission and coat check, I can’t compare the two and say the VIP was any better than general admission. We entered right at 12:30, were given swag bags and walked over to the coat check. The swag bag contents I got was completely different than my girlfriend’s. Both were obviously «filler», meaning stickers or cheap trinkets leftover from the vendors. I was not impressed by the swag bags.
Unlike another review on here, I enjoyed the sectioned off VIP area. There were plenty of seats, hors d’oeuvres, coffee, tea, water, etc. There was even a machine that had locking boxes to charge your cell phone. I didn’t use it but it looked really cool and helpful. My only gripe with this is that there was so much food and wine in the general admission, we had no reason to go back to the VIP area. Maybe if we were older or needed a space to sit and rest it would have been worth it but we spent the entire length of the session sampling food and wine.
The only two parts I truly enjoyed from the VIP was the larger sampling wine glass and the additional half hour of time on the floor. I don’t know exact measurements but it was about the size of a typical red wine glass. The general admission was closer to a 4oz sampling glass. But even then, general admission had «Boston Wine Expo» and a few logos printed on the glass while ours did not.
Bottom line — if you enjoy wine, attend the Boston Wine Expo, but in my opinion the additional cost for the VIP experience could be better spent elsewhere. There were plenty of seminars that looked interesting.
Additionally, I thought the Drync app sucks and heard similar experiences from different people. There are apparently different apps out there that work much better. So if you’re into cataloging your samples, either take a picture with your phone, write it down, or simply use a different app.

«One of My Favorite Events Every Year»
My wife and I have been going to this event for 3 years now and we look forward to it every year. We have been to a few wine festivals and this is by far our favorite one.
The venue is great with plenty of room, bathrooms and a coat check.
The event has more wine than you could try in the 4 hours its open. There is also plenty of food to try as well as cooking shows to watch if you are tired of trying wine.
The wine vendors are from all over the world which is exciting to get to try that variety of wines as well as talk to some many different people from all over.
I can’t wait to go again next year.

I LOVE this event!
AJ and I went to this for Valentine’s Day this year and it was the perfect event for it. Even though there were a ton of people in attendance, the line to get in moved very quickly. You receive a brochure, a list of the day’s events, and a wine glass when you walk in. You’re also invited to download the Drync app, which allows you to scan any of the wines you like best during the event and gives you $ 20 off your first purchase! Throughout the event, they post which wines are most popular on Drync.
The expo represents several states and countries around the world. The tasting servings are a great size. They have a bucket to spit out your tasting for those going specifically for tasting, but otherwise drink up!
Not only do they have a great selection of wines and knowledgeable representatives from the wineries, they also have top chefs from restaurants with free samples of everything from garlic knots to chicken pot pie! Other vendors include tea companies, travel raffles, home improvements and more.
There are two stages for seminars. About every half hour, they host a seminar where a chef teaches the audience how to cook a certain dish, provides a recipe to take home with you, and serves samples of the recipe and wine during the seminar!
The Wine Expo even provides a code to new Über members for up to $ 40 transportation, there and back!
This event has it all covered, and we will definitely be back in attendance :)

This event is my favorite annual event! I could down every day of every year up until the day of the expo. Tickets are
Expensive– but completely worth it. You will literally try at least 100 wines out of 2,000! There are several hundred wineries and culinary delights. You also get a lot of fun giveaways and samples. It is a great event for wine lovers, people who want to get into wine and people who just like to drink! You will learn a lot about the proper ways to taste wine and if you are already a wine enthusiast, chances are you will learn something new!

I have been to the wine expo 4 times and love it. Tons of wines the crowd is huge but its not hard to get the wine you want to try. The free food samples are clutch half way through the experience. I find the line for those is way longer then for the wine.
I have discovered a lot of things about wine at this event. They turned me into a red wine lover. For that I will always be grateful!
I have always gone on the Sunday afternoon which I think tends to be less crowded. Its always fun to see all the classy ladies who walked in stumbling out into a bright cold January afternoon.

too much fun. You gotta go

I never know what bottle of wine to buy at a liquor store. Problem solved. The Boston Wine Expo is a great experience that I think any wine drinker should do at least once. Unlimited samples of wine from plenty of vendors (some good, some not). It also appeals to the foodie in all of us with several food samples and cooking demonstrations from some of the best chefs in Boston. The tasting plates at these cooking demos are excellent.
I think the wine expo appeals to the non knowledgeable (like myself) wine drinker as much as the afficinado. Being able to sample so many different wines at one time and taking names and cards from the ones you enjoy is extremely useful. 90+ cellars was one of our clear favorites.
The 85 $ price tag is high, but I do think it’s worth it if you go for the whole afternoon and take advantage of the food and wine. If you have a chance to go at a discount to the regular price, do it!

My friend and I had a great time. Each vendor had 4+ wines on their table and there was soooo much food!!! I was lucky enough to get tickets through Unilocal but I would highly recommend it.

I was happy to get free tickets to the wine expo (Thanks Unilocal!) but even more happy that I didn’t spend $ 75 on the tickets.
If you’re going to go to this, go on Saturday. By Sunday’s early arrival, many wineries were out of wine. Lines were long. Coat check line is long. SO many people, and by mid afternoon so many drunk people that think it’s ok to cut in line. Maybe I’m just getting too old for these things! We left a little early to go get some beers over at Lucky’s.

THANK YOU Unilocal! This was an awesome event. Pricey for sure, so I don’t think I would have gone had I not gotten the free tix, but also definitely very fun. We sampled a slew of different foods– clam chowder, chocolate, paninis, pulled pork, and cheese… so much delicious cheese. There were (obviously) also a fantastic variety of wines. It was all a little overwhelming to be honest. I don’t think you could get through that place in a whole weekend much less four hours. Needless to say we were happy, full and quite tipsy by the end of the day. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure what I did with my wine glass… Anyway, good times had by all.

not a wine-​o heart
drink and eat for four hours
then pass out content
There wasn’t enough wine.
There wasn’t enough food.
There were too many people.
I didn’t get to eat antelope.
I didn’t get to eat a duck leg.
I didn’t get to drink all the wine I possibly could.
I didn’t get to go shopping for things like alpaca socks, spicy honey, or a new cable provider.
The cooking demos were lame.
I ran out of things to try, look at, buy and eat.
It’s totally possible to eat and drink everything at this event.
There wasn’t enough swag from venders.
All those things are lies. This event is amazing.

This event was a lot of fun, there were lots of different wineries to sample from along with a lot of delicious food samples. The ticket price was a bit high although I still think it was a pretty good deal, we stayed for 4 hours and I feel like I only saw ¼th of what the event had to offer. Looking forward to next year!

Love a good Sunday buzz!

As usual, the Boston Wine Expo was fantastic. Thousands of wines (I’d wager) from all over the world, along with seminars, food tasting, and prizes.
I saw some interesting products, including a fruit and flower flavored water. Blossom Water had several varieties, but my favorite was a Grapefruit Lilac.
That reminds me, there was one company who made syrups, for flavoring drinks, that had some beautiful soda water drinks for tasting. I believe it was a local company, but they had interested flavored drinks such as blackberry thyme.
It seems fitting that my favorite wine was by Barefoot, a cheap brand you can find at any wine store or supermarket. They make a Citrus Moscato that tasted amazing, super refreshing and light. Perfect for summer nights!
The Boston Wine Expo is a great place to find new products, meet local companies, and network with some great purveyors who may have something to offer your business.

I had a good time! I didn’t get hammered or anything, but it was good to taste different wines and see what i really like. I stuck with mostly whites… VIP Experience was nice, coat check, and bigger glass that you take home and can use again.
THANK YOU Unilocal FOR UPGRADING US!!!
Got to try different cheeses, some steak. and some neat bites of food from local restaurants. I’ll try to show up on time next time so i can get my full 5 hours, 4 hours wasn’t bad, it was good. Would love to go again! Fun times…

I’ve been to grand tastings before, but none as good as this extravaganza. Before I delve into my review, I’d like to thank Unilocal for getting me free VIP passes to this awesome event. We had an awesome time :)
After checking our coats in, we ran into a few food vendors. We sampled sushi, clam chowder, crab cakes, chocolate, hot sauces, olive oil, Portuguese delicacies, and antipasti in the VIP lounge.
The wines were phenomenal. Being a wine enthusiast, I stuck to what regions I enjoy wine from the most — Portugal, Spain, South America, and Australia/​New Zealand. I did sample some moscatos from Italy as well as Prosecco. I was happy to introduce my friend to wines from regions that she hadn’t tried before.
We even stopped at the Unilocal table, introduced ourselves, and spun the wheel. I even got my friend to sign up for Unilocal to start getting reviews posted!
I got hammered out of my mind. I had so much wine… so much yummy wine, and we had an awesome time at this event. I share Diane H.‘s sentiment below…
THANK YOU, Unilocal FOR THE UPGRADE!!! We had so much fun :) Thanks again!!!

I was lucky enough to be able to go to the Wine Expo on a Unilocal Elite pass. (Thanks again!) All said and done it was, just OK… I had a good time for sure, but the overall crowded-​ness of the whole thing was a bit too much. I felt like they clearly sold as many tickets as they could and you felt like you were wading through a sea of people… all the time. The food tables were tucked away in the corner, and literally mobbed.
I looked for random bread tables throughout the room (which other wine events I have been to had)– mostly to keep people sober, but only saw one… with this poor girl with a single basket of bread and tongs. (What a thankless job!)
Most of the bottles of wine being sampled were $ 10 – 30 dollars each. (There was a Sutter Home, and a Barefoot Vineyards had a table to round out the under $ 10 venue). I wasn’t expecting Caymus Vineyards to be pouring out Special Selection 2009… but a few gems would have been nice.
Now, I know I am a not the worlds most elite enophile, but I really felt let down at the $ 85 price point for tickets. (Yes, yes, I know… I was on a free pass). There were more than a couple folks sloppy drunk after the first hour the show was open… which was a bit of a wet blanket. I mean c’mon… It’s 1pm on a Sunday.
The highlight for me, was the Cooking Demos. That was pretty awesome. Getting to see Jody Adams from Cambridge’s Rialto was great.
I had a good time, no question about it… do I feel the show is worth 95 for Saturday tickets and 85 for Sunday? No. Not at all.
Would I go back? Maybe… Not a bad afternoon at all, we had a good time… Thanks again Unilocal

EXPENSIVE — but a good time if you’re into wine. Great idea for a sophisticated date. In years past there were 10,000 (actual) attendees. This year, there were far fewer attendees as well as seemingly 50% fewer wineries. The upside is that there’s room to move around and there’s even more food vendors — nice after you’ve had a few sips and need something to absorb all that’s swashing around your belly.
If you’ve done it — you can decide if you’d do it again. If you haven’t, well, give it a try.

For the past two years, I’ve been an exhibitor at The Boston Wine Expo and it’s been nothing short of overwhelmingly amazing. Tons of wine from all over the world, delicious (and complimentary) food samples, cooking demonstrations, photobooths (shout-​out to The Second Glass) and oodles and oodles of folks from all over the country coming together to get their hands on everything from Albariño to Zinfandel.
Through my experience at the Expo, I’ve met and ended up working with some really cool people (Barefoot Wine, Still River Winery, Food Should Taste Good) and sipped some excellent wine, all while having the opportunity to promote Unilocal to a fun, if not a little tipsy, crowd of locals and tourists alike. We’ll be back next year for sure!