May 3, 2012
The Wine Experience at Great GoogaMooga
Mark Thompson READ TIME: 4 MIN.
New York, New York - The Great GoogaMooga, the free food, drink and music festival coming to Brooklyn's Prospect Park this May 19th and 20th and produced by Superfly Presents, announced details on its Wine Experience. Located in the General Admission area and spanning across a 120-foot long tent, The Wine Experience will be an unparalleled, interactive wine tasting where guests have the opportunity to meet leading winemakers, importers and sommeliers and to discover over 100 wines.
As a collaborative effort between Peter Eastlake, Superfly's Director of Wine Programming, and renowned sommelier Paul Grieco of Hearth Restaurant, Terroir, and the Summer of Riesling Tour, the Wine Experience is tailored to be fun and accessible to those just learning about wine, but also informative and dynamic for even the most advanced imbiber.
Eastlake has worked with Superfly for the past four years, curating what has been deemed a "rock star" wine program at Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco, California. Grieco's fearless approach to wine has earned him a 2012 James Beard Nomination and his Summer of Riesling, now four years old, is to Riesling what going on tour is to bands.
The Wine Experience at GoogaMooga sees the benefit of the Rockwell Group's design expertise - the tent will have a warm and refined ambiance and wine personalities will tend bar behind an expansive center island. Entirely unique to a wine tasting of this size and scale, guests will be able to converse directly with winemakers, importers, and regional ambassadors about wine's origins and attributes.
All pours will be available as a taste or a glass. Highlights range from iconic vineyards and importers like Bonny Doon and Kermit Lynch to organic wineries like Long Meadow Ranch to local producers like Red Hook Winery and Gotham Project. Guests will have the opportunity to learn about wines from all over the globe: Greece will be presented by Cava Spiliadis, there will be Grower Champagne by Terry Theise, Wines of Alsace, R�as Baixas Albari�o, and Spanish Rosado as well as wines from New Zealand and Australia.
Grieco's Summer of Riesling 2012 will also kick off its homage to the dynamic flavors of the Riesling grape at the Wine Experience. Additionally, many of New York City's top sommeliers will have a presence on-site, curating their own regional selections of wines and playing host at the Wine Experience's "Ask the Sommelier" station where guests can glean more knowledge and ask virtually any question imaginable about wine.
The wine list for The Great GoogaMooga's Wine Experience includes the below:
Tour:
Summer of Riesling 2012
Wineries:
Banshee
Bethel Heights
Bonny Doon
Gotham Project
Gothic
Hobo Wine Company
Infinite Monkey Theorem
K Vintners
Long Meadow Ranch
Mouton Noir
Palmina
Qupe
Red Hook Winery
Scribe
Tablas Creek - Famille Perrin
Wind Gap
Importers:
Acid Inc.
Blue Danube
Cape Classics
Jose Pastor Selections
Kermit Lynch
Old Bridge Cellars
Terry Theise
Regions:
Australia
Greece presented by Cava Spiliadis
France, Alsace presented by Wines of Alsace
New Zealand
Spain, R�as Baixas Albari�o
Spanish Rosado
Terry Theise presenting Grower Champagne
Produced by Superfly Presents, The Great GoogaMooga will make for the ultimate sensory experience in hosting approximately 75 food vendors, 35 breweries, 100 wines and 18 live performances throughout the weekend of May 19-20, 2012 in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. General Admission at GoogaMooga is free and open to the public; the festival has the capacity to host tens of thousands food and music fans per day. Concessions in General Admission will be priced individually. There will also be ExtraMooga, a paid, all-inclusive ticketed experience with its own unique programming.
For more information and tickets, please visit The Great GoogaMooga online at www.googamooga.com
To find GoogaMooga on Facebook and Twitter please visit: www.facebook.com/googamooga and @GoogaMooga
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A long-term New Yorker and a member of New York Travel Writers Association, Mark Thompson has also lived in San Francisco, Boston, Provincetown, D.C., Miami Beach and the south of France. The author of the novels WOLFCHILD and MY HAWAIIAN PENTHOUSE, he has a PhD in American Studies and is the recipient of fellowships at MacDowell, Yaddo, and Blue Mountain Center. His work has appeared in numerous publications.
