Tasting and clas sessions were ALL lacking, poorly organized and operated started 15 minutes late for a 1.5 hour session. Major ripoff

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 Yelp 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 Yelp table, introduced ourselves, and spun the wheel. I even got my friend to sign up for Yelp 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, YELP FOR THE UPGRADE!!! We had so much fun :) Thanks again!!! read more

Boston Wine Expo - VIP Lounge - Wineries Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

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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 Yelp to a fun, if not a little tipsy, crowd of locals and tourists alike. We'll be back next year for sure! read more

Boston Wine Expo - a large crowd of people - Wineries Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

I was lucky enough to be able to go to the Wine Expo on a Yelp 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 Yelp! read more

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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 YELP 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... read more

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! read more

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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 Uber members for up to $40 transportation, there and back! This event has it all covered, and we will definitely be back in attendance :) read more

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We came. We saw. We drank wine. And we had a great time! The Expo is held in Boston's World Trade Center, which I had never been to before. There were volunteers everywhere around the building who were helpful in getting all of the soon-to-be-drunk hopefuls in the right door. Coat check was reasonably priced ($3) and extremely well organized. But beyond the logistical details, this is a great exposition! Hundreds of vendors with 1800 different wines to sample between them. The wines are not all super fancy by any means -some were delicious and a few were barely consumable- but that's the fun of a massive wine tasting: trying them all and finding favorites! And we found that sometimes our barely-consumable was someone else's sweet sweet nectar. I was excited to find that in addition to wine there were also plenty of vendors with food samples! Shout out to The Living Room for the dumplings and Righteous Felon Craft Jerky for stealing the show. All-in-all we definitely got the bang for our buck and ended up staying much longer than we had anticipated. Silly of us to think we'd leave early; it's a massive room of free wine after all! read more

You will get drunk. Even if you don't drink. I dare you not to sample the wines. In fact, I double dare you not to drink! Hell yeah, you'll drink and enjoy it. Ethica Wines http://www.ethicawines.com were my favorite and they are looking for a distributor, so I mosied on over to the Bauer Wine table and dropped their name. I hope they start selling them and maybe they'd give me a bottle of Prosecco for free! If you don't like crowds but like wine, I'd say go check this Expo out. The more you drink, the less scary the crowds feel. Gooooodnight, everybody! read more

I must start this review off with that telling you that I don't know anything about wine and I volunteered at the event on Saturday to earn free tickets to attend on Sunday. That being said, my free tickets to an event where I could drink until my liver busted was well worth it. Oh yeah, and there was tons of cheese taste tests there. On a serious note, it was very apparent to every pourer that I had no idea what I was doing, as shown by the fact that I was actually swallowing the wine (seriously, spitting is gross and a waste of good booze). Even so, most of the pourers, were very happy to tell me about their wine and was excited as to whether or not I liked it (Germany, I love you, but your wines are too sweet). Not sure that I would cough up the $75 for a ticket, but there was all you could drink wine (and a couple sakes, rice vodka, and ciders), free cheese, hummus, chocolate, cookies, chips, and other stuff. There was no line to get in, the bathroom lines weren't that bad (if you went to the right one), there were cooking demonstrations with taste tests and free Fiji water. My friend and I walked around for the whole 4.5 hours and didn't even bat an eye. Thanks Wine Expo, I will be back next year. read more

I am surprised more yelpers were not reviewing this as there was a yelp table set up at the 2009 Boston Wine Expo (where I received a yelpstick and was very excited about it!). Yesterday I attended my first wine expo ever. I will say right up front that I very much enjoyed it and would go back. While the tickets are usually near 100 bucks a pop I think it is well worth it for how much you get to try. Having said that I will explain where the star deductions came from... General management of the event was not great from the beginning. When you walked into the Seaport there were different areas for different types of tickets. Of course there was not a sign that told us that- there was a screaming woman who works there. During an event I never think it is a good idea to save money on signage and replace it with people shouting directions in your face. It always amazes me how many events think this is a good idea. So after we got in and skid row screamed directives at us- we went up an escalator, down a hallway, to an outdoor overpass, down a stairwell, over the gumdrop fountains and down to lollipop lane. There were people passing out glasses and you think "yay! I'm here"...but you are not- its a few more hallways and stairwells before you get to the event room. The event room is a hustle and bustle of clinking glasses and smells sort of fermenting things- a strange mixture of grapes, cheese, and old people. You get accustomed to it. Sections are marked at the top by country- but not all countries are distinguished by those crazy elusive things to the wine expo- signs. You can start at one end and go to the next but you might make mistakes in doing this- like accidental asking the Argentinian wine woman about a New Zealand wine and having her curse in your face (something about New Zealand and the head of a pig?). Or worse, pissing off the snotty french dude because you asked about a Bordeaux and he is from the region of burgundy (who the F knew!). Moreover if you are looking for anything specific you cannot find it because in addition to the lack of signage, maps of the event also evade these people. Now, during all of this- you go from table to table, sampling mouthfuls of rose, whites, reds, sweets, drys, and all matter in between. You try wine from Greece, France, Spain, germany..even Miami. So somewhere between your wine teeth, slurred speech, and the fact that you cannot stop laughing that you can spit purple- you forget all the irritations because...well...you're drunk. All in all I would totally go back- The wine expo would have gotten a full 5 stars with just a little more focus on the customer experience. But who can blame them for counting on people to leave there cross eyed and not have anything to "wine" about...oh yeah...I went there. :) read more

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! read more

I am not in the wine business, however, I do am very well traveled and a wine aficionado. I was very disappointed in the 2010 Boston Wine Expo. We spent close to $100 each to get in. We were supposed to go in at 1:00 PM. I am glad it was not raining outside; they had us waiting outside until 1:30 PM. In Florida where I am from, unbelievably, things are more organized! Once we got in, the lines were really long to taste the wine. No one in the lines was especially friendly, it was more like frustration for waiting. When you received the wine, it was maybe a tablespoon. Thirdly, for the amount of money we paid, I thought that there would have been varieties of free samples of food. There was no food, except for a couple of pasta sauce makers giving tiny samples (one tablespoon) of pasta. Also, there was a small sample of salad. Total disappointment. However, food was available for purchase. Lastly, the bathrooms. The lines to get into the bathrooms were endless, for both men and women. I am shocked that in a city like Boston the building engineers/architects did not design sufficient bathrooms for this large space. I would never go to this again. This was a large expense and total disappointment. It was definitely not a social event where you drink wine and meet people or talk to people. You only see frustrated people waiting in line with their backs to you. I would take the money and eat at a very nice restaurant somewhere else. read more

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. read more

I was happy to get free tickets to the wine expo (Thanks Yelp!) 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. read more

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. read more

I was skeptical as the last wine tasting (not wine expo--something at cyclorama) was horrible...so with trepidation I went with a friend...AND it was great! We went on Sunday and got there around 2...the only regret we had was not doing the 2 day pass or getting there on time as most of the vendors were pretty much wrapping up by 4ish... Will definitely go back next year!! read more

With so many vendors and vintners proffering their wines, they should have known enough to also proffer either crackers or bits of baguette to neutralise the palette. After a couple of tastings, my tastebuds were so polluted that I had to drink the rinsing water~! People who make their living through selling wine should know enough to serve palette cleansers. read more

This was my first time at a Wine Expo - or anything this extentive in regards to tastings. When you walk in it is overhelming... best advice is to go slow and take your time. Entry was $75, but well worth it and I walked away becomming way more knowledgeable on wine and the various types/regions then I've ever been. Not only do you taste LOTS and LOTS of wine, but there's plenty of food including great cheeses and snacks. We went to the Sunday session, which was more relaxed and not as crowded as compared to the Saturday session. You'll see me again at next year's Expo! read more

Awesome event: Some great wines (Joseph Carr was my absolute favorite). Most marginal. Some booths great too - kudos to Hudson Valley Foi Gras - Yelp booth was a big downer (go to charm school ladies - or have a glass of vino or ten) why so grumpy? All in all the good outweighs the bad. Enough fun to fill an afternoon. read more

There are various reasons you'd go here for the ONE DAY: 1. You are with a bridal party: You want to party and get drunk fast as you aimlessly meander from one booth to another 2. You had cash to burn and the lure of unlimited wine (and a Sam Adams BEER station) appeals to you. Yeah, there are (mostly women) in various states of inebriation sitting on the floor trying to get their BAC down to 0.08 before they hit the roads :( 3. You wanted to taste wines but can only afford a single day's ticket. This is the category I fall into. 4. You have SPECIFIC wines that you want to sample and one day is sufficient for you to go through them. This is the category I definitely fall into! Reasons why you'd buy a two day ticket: 1. You can afford it! 2. You didn't get hung over enough the first time around, and want to give it another go. 3. You really are a wine connoisseur and have a lot more tasting to do. Reasons why you'd buy a VIP ticket. 1. Because you have cash to burn. There's the Gran Cru tasting (can't review that but I heard they have the more expensive wines to sample there... the most expensive one I tasted was a $60 bottle) How I got in: I volunteered at the event on Saturday. I worked the VIP welcome booth. As a VIP you get a bag that has "Seaport" printed on the side (it's that recyclable/recycled bag you get at Shaws for $1.99), you get a bottle of water and a Riedel White Wine glass (which Google said was priced around $30 a pop!). So, IMHO, if having no lines and owning a fancy glass is important to you, you can indulge in this rip-off! For my volunteering effort, I got two REGULAR tickets to the Sunday event. I got in line at 12:30, and a half hour later the doors opened. So, as a VIP I would have saved 30 minutes of my time! My Plan: I had the layout of the place from the brochure (available online, but I picked up one when I was volunteering) I am a red wine enthusiast and I THINK I know a bit about my Shirazes and "Cab Savs" (an exhibitor word, not mine!), and Malbecs. So, I went through the vendor list and marked out these three. If a vendor sold multiple vintages I picked the one that was an older vintage (could be worse than a more recent year, but if it was they wouldn't have put it out on display, right?) After I had marked out my first pass, I had about 36 booths to visit (34 for reds, one white and one sparkling added just for kicks) After that all I did was follow a path that took me past all these booths in the shortest path. This helped me focus on the wines I like, not get lost and spend more time at each booth listening to the exhibitors. I did take breaks to visit the food samples section. Even though they have breads laid out at tables over the floor, the cheeses, spreads, chips, and extras you get from vendors pairing their foods with the wines are awesome! Tips: 1. If you like a wine, take a picture, use one of the cards that they have on the table next to the wine, or use the brochure to track your notes/ratings. 2. If you like a wine, ask the exhibitor where you can get it. Unfortunately, some of the New Zealand wines were not available in the US! It was their first Expo and were trying to make inroads into the US market 3. Drink lots of water (yeah, even the MEN's room lines get long, but you'll be less hungover the next day!) 4. Be friendly to the vendors - they've been there dealing with all kinds of people! 5. Feel free to go back to vendors if you want a second taste - I went back to the Shiraz I really liked at the beginning of the day. The lady recognized me, and when I told her it was my last booth before I head out and wanted to make sure I really liked it, she gave me a full glass, not just a taste :) 6. If you can only go for one day and can pay the $10 extra for Saturday, do that... some of the Ports I wanted to try were already gone... wines gone, vendors gone! 7. Pace yourself. 8. Don't drink and drive! They have UBER-taxi coupons, the T is right outside, and there are enough taxi-cabs outside! read more

Such a great time! It was the perfect escape from the cold weather outside. I bought my mom tickets for Christmas and we had such a blast being whisked away to different countries trying all of their great wines. My mom is just learning to like whites after a decades-long love affair with Merlot, but she was even more surprised to find more reds that she liked at the expo. It was really neat to be able to teach my mother about something for once and play guessing games about what she would and wouldn't enjoy. I left with a pleased palate, while she left with a bunch of note cards and names of bottles of wine to buy during her next run to the liquor store. We also enjoyed some of the chef demonstrations. Of course I didn't dare miss Gordon Hamersley (MC'ed by Billy Costa) crack some jokes while teaching the crowd a recipe to prosciutto wrapped trout, and I even found the time to watch a few other demonstrations, sample a few more wines, ports, iced wines, mulled ciders, and try some tasty apps, cheeses and chocolate from the hundreds of booths. Definitely would recommend going again, but bring some advil because all those wines can give you a headache. (Also would recommend taking someone on a date here. Too much fun and a great way to get to know someone and their likes/dislikes, etc.) read more

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. read more

THANK YOU YELP!! 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. read more

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 Yelp but I would highly recommend it. read more

terribly overpriced for what it was. At each counter, after waiting in line, they would literally pour a drop of wine- completely disappointing after paying over $115 per person for the main entrance. I complained to a manager on site and suggested they changed the system to at least give each ticket holder 5-7 regular tasting size glasses. I would not recommend this event - total rip off read more

We are long time visitors of the wine expo and they have thoroughly destroyed this event. First, the venue is now VASTLY overcrowded, with crowds three people deep at some offerings. People get to a table, and they park themselves there tasting every offering. Most forgo common social etiquette and just muscle their way forward, with glasses extened over heads, it's ridiculous. One of the biggest crowds I walked past was at "barefoot wines" so that gives you an idea of what you're looking at. By mid afternoon this is pretty much a shitshow. VIP ticket is completely worthless, IMO. The second issue is, there is simply NO wine in this entire expo that requires tasting! Every bottle opened is between $10 and $25 in price and simply do not require standing in line to know what you're going to get. "why are we paying $100 to drink a bunch of $10 wines?" is how my wife put it. The only entertainment is perhaps listening to self aggrandizing wine snobs attempt to discuss "terroir" or the like with a show person who was hired yesterday, discussing a wine that is made from bulk juice in 100k-bottle lots. The event gets ONE star just for the food offerings and cooking demos that are ok. The event gets another star for the Vintner's room, because for double the money, this IS a vast assortment of very good wines, with a sprinkling of absolutely incredible offerings. Every wine here is supposed to be $70 and up and for the most part I believe that's what we sampled. I've attended the vintner's room for two years now and will likely return this year. The food offerings in the vintners room are plentiful and from some of Boston's better known restaurants. read more

If my brother didn't warn us about the lack of food, I would've been starving. Luckily we ate lunch prior to attending the event. He also hooked us up with free tickets. But I agree with others, way overpriced and imo lacked a lot. We were disappointed to not see any wineries from Germany. There were quite a selection. Yes they only gave enough wine for a few sips. They know most would dump it out anyway. It's a tasting nonetheless. So if you're reading this and contemplating on going, I'd say save your money and find a local winery to visit instead. read more

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 1/4th of what the event had to offer. Looking forward to next year! read more

"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. read more

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. read more

This past wine expo 2016 was my 10th 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. read more

could've been a shitshow if not for the pats game but still a big crowd. thought i could buy some bottles. wrong. huge letdown my poison (Saint-Émilion) was nowhere. paid 1/2 for ticket. so there. read more

This is my second year attending the wine expo. Last year my friend volunteered the day before and took me as her free guest (thanks Deb!!). This year I got $20 off per Sunday ticket for being a Globe Subscriber and took my wine enthusiast friend as her graduation present. The Wine Expo is one of the best people watching events of the year in the Hub!! You would think the high ticket price would keep the Rednecks away but OH NO!! We saw TWO pregnant women, one of whom was DRINKING wine. We saw countless drunk women in revealing clothing shamelessly flirting with the young male distributors. We saw tempers flare as people cut in front of the free cheese line. We saw bored boyfriends dragged there by their girlfriends because there wasn't any football to watch this past Sunday We were repeatedly cut in front of by pushy and impatient middle aged people (GIVE ME MY WINE NOW!!) It was awesome. And the wine was great. The most fun I've had on a frigid winter Sunday afternoon since the last wine expo. read more

As a Northern Californian transplant to New England, one of the things I miss most about my old East Bay home was its proximity to Napa and Sonoma. I miss the beauty of the region and the amazing world class wines the area produced. My husband and I know our way around a good glass of wine. Thus, getting a Yelp Elite pass to attend the 2014 Boston Wine Expo was a treat! We went on Sunday. Yes, it was crowded but had the chance to imbibe in some fabulous wines. Be patient and take the opportunity to chat up the folks pouring. Had a chance to talk to some owners of small operations that made good wine and were interesting people to boot. The food is sparse (but tasty samples abound) so I employed my typical "lets go wine tasting" stance: smell, swish and spit. Left with nary a buzz but reveled in some fab product. Stand outs for me: the wineries of Lodi, CA and exploring Portuguese wines. So, thank you Yelp for the opportunity to explore and I look forward to finding some of these vintages in my local wine shops. read more

Nearly $100 for a ticket to fight my way through massive crowds in a sweaty exhibit hall to try and squeeze through a line to get a teaspoon sample of wine. What was I paying for? The winery reps pouring the samples were mostly disinterested and seemed overwhelmed by the hordes of people. And if I tried to have a conversation with the pourer about a wine, the impatient crowds behind just shoved me out of the way to get their pour. This was no way to sample and learn about new wines from interesting wineries. Even if you liked a wine, you can't buy it on site, and most say they can't ship to Massachusetts. So what was the point? It was simply a drink-fest for the masses. After giving up trying to find the advertised food (some chips, flake of pasta with a teaspoon of sauce, or packaged junk food was about all we found), exhausted fighting through the lines to get a sip of wine, we escaped and went to a favorite restaurant where another hundred bucks bought a fantastic meal with a couple glasses of wine. That's where we should have started the afternoon. I can't imagine the being in the midst of the hordes pouring out of the expo center when the drunken grope-fest ended at 5pm. I won't waste my time or money in the future. read more

it was just ok.. lots of wine.. lots of cougars.... but the wine was just ok nothing great as a matter of fact out of lets say 25 vendors we went to we liked 2 . The other wine vendors selections were sort of raw. Price point sof wines were about 13-20$ The big suprise of the night was the black box booth, great price for good wines. Next year we'll get the reserved tickets at 175$ not the general admission tix just for some better selection. me and the fiancee usually enjoy wines from 60$ and up but enjoy lesser $$ wines we just didnt come across alot that were decent. also food... plan on eatign beforehand or right after food there is decent and there is samples but.... 20 people will mob and kill for a 1 ounce cube of cheese read more

My wife and I went to the Boston Wine Expo for the first time this year on Saturday. We were SO looking forward to the event, but it was terrible!!! The lines were long to get in, but they moved quickly, and it didn't take too long to get into the event. I took picture after picture of tables that had run out of wine 1 hour into the event. Food tables also ran out after the first hour. The event had put water pitchers on the tables for people to rinse their glasses, but after about the first hour or two, all of the pitchers were empty and they didn't refill them. At other events I went to, they would place glass rinsing stations not at the tables where you were tasting, but as separate stations. The pours were often smaller than the residual water left in my glass after rinsing it out. The attendees at the wine event weren't terribly friendly either. After going to many of the craft beer festivals, I was expecting a friendly crowd. The Beer tasters, often will share light-hearted "socials". The wine-going crowd was pushy and frequently would cut into lines and push their way to the front of the table. If you found a wine you were interested in, it was difficult to talk to the pourers about the wine, because other oenophiles were pushing to get their tastes. My wife and I have taken a number of wine tasting classes at the Boston Center for Adult Education, and we were looking to expand our horizons at this festival. In the future, we will know to save our time, save our money, and stick to the wine stores where they know their wine. read more

I am currently sitting here in the VIP lounge at the Boston wine expo, we came here two years ago and got the VIP ticket which we paid a little more and it was nice private coat check , a private room with sofas and food, champagne, stella Artois cider, coffee, desserts. So this year we upgraded to $210 a person and did the vintners lounge with access to the VIP room.... the vintners lounge was wonderful, nicer wines wonderful appetizers and not a large group of people so you could have access to everything. However when we headed into the main part of the expo and went to the VIP line we went to collect our swag bag and special wine glasses and Was told you don't get one because we had tickets to the vintners lounge we just get to go into the VIP room! this year there was a very sparse cheese tray that was gone by 3 o'clock no coffee and champagne we can only have one glass if we had a ticket that would've been in the VIP swag bag which we did not get for $210 a ticket. How disappointing way to nickel and dime people... Sad to say we will not be back again and for the first time we do not recommend it to anyone after this. read more

Seems to me that the Boston WIne Expo is a good take..Barefoot is still #1 in my book..budget friendly and still the best bang for the buck! However, the Boston Wine Expo must have gotten a great deal on their wine glasses or used last years...my glass read Boston WIne Expo 2013...last time I looked it was 2014. You think for the money you pay you would at least get a current year wine glass! read more