In anticipation of the Festival in April, top sommeliers from South Florida gather every January to evaluate hundreds of wine entries submitted for blind judging. The Best in Glass Wine Challenge awards gold, silver and bronze medals, creating a group of stunning wines that carry a unique cachet for pouring by the glass in local restaurants. During Best in Glass Month, the month leading up the Festival, the winning wines are featured at elite restaurants throughout the South Florida community.
Sign up for Best in Glass Month | March 12 – April 18, 2012
Restaurants participating in Best in Glass Month receive a considerable amount of publicity, and in exchange agree to feature two or more of the Medal winning wines as by-the-glass pours during the month leading up to the Miami Wine & Food Festival. Your wine choices will be highlighted in print and broadcast media, as well as on the Festival’s website, driving festival fans and potential new customers to your restaurant to sample these acclaimed wines.
Benefits to participating restaurants
- Best in Glass Month will generate visibility, increase traffic to your restaurant and enhance your image and bottom line as a partner of the United Way Miami Wine & Food Festival — at no cost to you.
- Featured in a series of ads in The Miami Herald and Miami New Times, among other publications.
- Included in e-mails to an audience of more than 30,000 recipients.
- Restaurant name, chef, and web link featured as a Best in Glass participant on the United Way Miami Wine & Food Festival website
- Included in calendar listings, Festival partner emails, newsletters and other local media outlets
- Mentioned on the Festival’s social media outlets
- By participating in Best in Glass Month, your restaurant will support United Way of Miami-Dade and our diverse South Florida community, while enhancing its overall reputation with employees, customers, business partners and other stakeholders, making a powerful statement about your community involvement in South Florida.
If your restaurant is interested in participating please complete the Restaurant Participation Agreement by Monday, March 5, 2012 – the earlier you confirm, the earlier we can include you in our media campaign.
About Best in Glass Wine Challenge
Part of the United Way Miami Wine & Food Festival, this two-day full scale graded wine tasting competition was held at Miami Culinary Institute January 8 & 9, 2012 and was judged by 18 of South Florida’s top sommeliers. Following their blind tasting, the sommeliers graded the wines and awarded the top entrants gold, silver or bronze medals. List of winners can be found here.
2012 Best in Glass Challenge Sommeliers
- Cynthia Betancourt of Azul at Mandarin Oriental
- Don Derocher of The Ritz Carlton, Fort Lauderdale
- Jorge Mendoza of The Ritz Carlton, Key Biscayne
- Erving Machado of La Cofradia
- Guillermo Gomez of Scarpetta at Fontainebleau Miami Beach
- Eric Larkee of Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink
- Antoni Yelamos of the W South Beach
- Daniel Toral of Sustain Restaurant
- Laura Romano of Hollywood Prime
- Caleb Ganzer of db Bistro Moderne, Miami
- Justin Hall of Bourbon Steak, Miami
- Greg Rivera of The Breakers Palm Beach
- Henrique Viotti of Hakkasan at Fontainebleau Miami Beach
- Sylvie Gervais of Mizner Country Club
- Kirsta Grauberger of Market 17
- David Meneses of Hakkasan at Fontainebleau Miami Beach
- Nicole Candusso of Meat Market
- Zarko Stankovic of Scarpetts at Fontainebleau Miami Beach
Every year, under the direction of James Beard award-winning wine and food writer, Lyn Farmer, the festival draws thousands of foodies and wine enthusiasts and has raised $12 million for charity. For more information call 305-646-7111.