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A large crowd of approximately 700 participants were able to taste a variety of wines as they strolled along the porches and listened to jazz music at the first Wine Festival at Five Rivers Delta Resource Center on Oct. 6.

The Wine Festival proved to be a huge success to benefit the Catholic Service Center, event organizers said.

Sherrie Graham, publicity and marketing coordinator for the event, said both the food and wine seminars were packed with participants.

"Everyone enjoyed themselves," Graham said.

There were participating chefs from fifteen restaurants or catering companies, and eight wine distributors. All items up for bid were auctioned off and favorite wines were purchased from the retail store.

The wine list included Pinot Noir, Riesling, Chardonnay, Merlot, to name a few, and champagne. Vino e Grappa owners Terry Brown and George McKee sponsored the retail wine store where patrons could purchase the wines they just sampled and enjoyed. Featured wines were from Italy, USA, France, Australia, Spain, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Modolva and Germany.

Stations serving hors d'oeuvres from area restaurants offered a variety of taste tempting treats, such as hot crab soup, from Felix's Fish Camp, to lemon curd tartlets, provided by the Battle House. J. B. Davis, a New Orleans rhythm and blues key boardist provided the entertainment.

Guest wine seminars were provided by The Wine Loft, Fillippo Pistone of Bacchanal Wine Imports from Italy and Jim Moore of l'Uvaggio di Giacomo of California.

Cooking demonstrations were provided by executive Chef Charles Mereday of the Battle House and executive Chef Nadir Sherwani of the Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel.

Celebrity Chef Andrew Selz, a guest on the Food Network and former executive Chef to President Bill Clinton, provided a cooking demonstration including Cedar plank cooking on the grill.

Seminar attendees were able to sample Cedar plank Thai Salmon with white truffle polenta and bananas with brown sugar, vanilla and walnuts. Chef Selz is planning on opening a restaurant called “The Chef's Table” in Pensacola soon. His “fusion and infusion cuisine,” enables him to take cooking techniques and flavor profiles from different countries and put them into dishes.

“Happiness is cooking with flavor,” Selz said.

A live auction of 68 items was held in the theater with live auctioneer, Ray Reiker, from The Idea Barn. Sister Carolyn Oberkirch, RSM, chairperson of the advisory board of directors of The Service Center which helps the less fortunate, said she was very pleased with the turn-out of community support.

With such a good response, the organizers are already looking forward to the second annual Wine Festival which will be held in October 2008, Graham said.

"Every new event has its challenges, but we needed our own wine festival," she said.