New Orleans Wine & Food Experience Sets the Dates for 1999 Event NEW ORLEANS, LA -- Mark your calendar. The eighth annual New Orleans Wine & Food Experience (NOWFE) will happen June 23-27, 1999. The Experience features over 500 fine wines and their creators from more than 100 wineries worldwide. Almost 100 of New Orleans finest restaurants are showcased in conjunction with the wines through numerous dining, tasting and educational events. Last year's event was the most successful ever, attracting more than 4,000 oenophiles and gastronomes to the city. The 1999 Experience is expected to surpass that standard. "New Orleans is recognized as one of the world's premier food cities, " said 1999 NOWFE president Howard Brown. "New Orleans' abundance of outstanding restaurants and the great wines of the world are a natural match."

This year's event will begin Wednesday, June 23, with The Vintner's Dinners, unique dine-around opportunities highlighting special menus from 28 restaurants citywide. Each dinner will feature a selection of wines from at least two specific vineyards with principals, often the winemakers, on hand to explain the wines before each course. Chefs and vintners consult extensively to ensure outstanding results. The wildly popular, definitively New Orleans' Royal Street Experience will continue this year on Thursday, June 24. Seven historic blocks will become a fantastic wine and food party with winemakers and restaurateurs offering samples from within French Quarter art galleries and antique shops. As a free-form walking tour set to a backdrop of live New Orleans jazz music,the Royal Street Experience is an indulgence in the finer things in life.

On Friday evening and Saturday afternoon (June 25 and 26) two giant ballrooms within the city's convention center will stage the pairing of a tremendous assortment of NOWFE, 1999,area chefs and winemakers. These Grand Tastings are a gastronomic fantasy land. One need only to graze from station to station, sampling the wares.

Not only for the body, NOWFE will nourish the psyche with offerings of more than 16 educational seminars presented by industry professionals on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. The 1999 event will culminate with a Sunday (June 27) Champagne Jazz Brunch and fine wine auction. The cost for full registration prior to May 1 is $355 per person. This includes admission to the Royal Street Experience, both Grand Tastings, admission to any four seminars and the Champagne Jazz Brunch and auction.

The cost of full registration will increase to $375 after April 1. Participation in Vintner's Dinners is extra, $75 per person, inclusive. Proceeds from the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience will benefit the New Orleans Hospitality Education Foundation, a mentoring program serving youths interested in careers in the restaurant, hotel and tourism industries. "Our mission is to share the knowledge and enjoyment of fine food and wine while exposing the world to New Orleans' unique culture through its art, architecture and music," Brown said. " We give something back to that culture through our philanthropic endeavors."