Crowd praised at wine and food festival
There was no raining out Marlborough’s big day.
The threat of rain loomed before the festival but fears of being rained out were dampened down with only a few drops in the afternoon.
The sell-out crowd of 8000 people at the Wine and Food Festival made the most of a humid Saturday with people coming from around the world for the event.
Authorities were full of praise for the behaviour of the crowd this year. ‘‘There were no arrests at the Wine and Food Festival.
‘‘Police conducted checkpoints at the exit of the event between 3.30pm and 8pm. Nobody was found to be over the limit, which is a great result,’’ a police spokesperson said.
The coveted Supreme Wine & Food Match award was taken out by Spy Valley Wines and Feast Merchants.
The duo paired Spy Valley pinot gris 2017 with a hot chicken taco made from Nashville style hot chicken, soft handmade flour tortilla, coleslaw, pickles and comeback sauce.
Feast Merchants owners Rory and Frances King said they sold about 300 tacos, selling out before the festival wrapped up.
‘‘Pretty much from 11.30 till 5.30 we were non-stop, we ran out of tacos around 5,’’ Rory said.
Festival-goers appreciated the combination of the flavours with the wine, Frances said.
‘‘It had a nice mouth feel, you had the taco which was a bit spicy and the pinot gris paired the best.
‘‘We tried it with a few other different wines. You think spicy food normally goes with a riesling but the riesling killed all the flavours in the taco,’’ she said.
The crowd were entertained on stage by Kiwi performers that included Tiki Taane and Boh Runga, and the Marlborough Jazz Quartet added a local element to the day’s sounds.
On the culinary side, Kiwi celebrity chef Annabelle White and Masterchef New Zealand winning sisters Karena and Kasey Bird were joined by international chefs Colin Fassnidge and Nick Honeyman to treat the crowd with their cooking demonstrations of salmon, clams and lamb.
"You think spicy food normally goes with a riesling but the riesling killed all the flavours in the taco." Feast Merchants' Frances King