The Galveston Island Wine Festival is returning September 1 through September 3, 2023 and this year, it's being held at Moody Gardens in Galveston. It's a comeback of sorts for the festival which has been on COVID pandemic hiatus since its last event in 2019. The GIWF was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic restrictions and is finally makin a return. Usually held at Saengerfest Park , the festival's change of venue to Moody Gardens offers unique opportunities for attendees who want to make it an overnight jaunt or a three-day blow-out.
The festival has events open to the public as well as exclusive offerings for hotel guests. The hotel guests- only events include Friday's Seven on Seven Seafood Extravaganza with seven of Houston and Galveston's best chefs creating beautiful dishes that will be paired with wine from seven global wine regions. The star chefs include Christine Ha, David Cordua, Paul Miller, Chris Lopez, James Lundy, William Pickavance and pastry chef Bethany Boedicker.
The following day, Master Sommelier, Guy Stout, will host a sommelier seminar which has already sold out as has Saturday's Vineyards Around the World Luxury Wine tasting.

However, there are still tickets available for Saturday's Penguins & Pinot: Grand Tasting at The Aquarium Pyramid. Guests will enjoy food bites from Gulf Coast restaurants along with wine and spirit tastings amid the marine life of the aquarium. The tickets also include the Wine'd Down After Hours, an evening event with live music from The Line Up, dancing and a spectacular fireworks show over Offats Bayou.
Sunday's festivities begin with the Beck Family Estates Brunch at Cafe in the Park. Diners will enjoy a delicious brunch plus a complimentary mimosa. The festival wraps up Sunday evening with the Freedom Stories Bourbon Tasting, a salute to the U.S. military with bourbon tastings and light hors d'oeuvres. Guest speakers include WWII Navy Veteran Eddie Janek and Lieutenant Colonel of the U.S. Marine Corps, Neil Murphy Jr.

For out of town guests or those smart enough to make plans for a festival centered around adult beverages, Moody Gardens is offering several Sip and Stay packages for one, two or three nights plus a selection of wine festival events. The three-night "On Cloud Wine" hotel package offers access to all of the weekend's festival events including the exclusive House of Suntory Welcome Reception and the Beck Family Estates Champagne Social.
The Houston Press was invited this week to a pre-party peek at the upcoming celebration of food and wine. The launch party was held at Passerella, chef/restaurateur Paul Miller's recently opened Italian restaurant on Washington Avenue, where guests were treated to a sample of the festival's offerings. Representatives from Stout Family Wines and Beck Family Estates treated guests to pours of bubbles and several red and white wines while we enjoyed the tempting fare from some of the participating chefs.
In one corner, Brandon Warren, sous chef at Gr8 Plate Hospitality, was dishing out two different polentas. One was a tender, slightly pink wagyu meatball in tomato sauce while the other was more of a riff on shrimp and grits. It was barbecued shrimp on top of creamy polenta and the sauce was spicy, giving a little added flavor to the corn grits. A fellow food writer could not get enough of the tasty shrimp.

Well-known local chef David Cordua and his father, famed founder of Churrasco's - Michael Cordua, were offering guests a good-sized beef empanada with a creamy verde sauce. When we opened up the pastry of the empanada, steam escaped as did the beef which filled the pastry. There was a hint of cinnamon and Cordua told us that he added pine nuts as well to give the filling the flavor of kofta, a popular dish in many Middle Eastern cuisines. One guest at our table wrapped one in napkins to-go, with the chef's blessing.
The pastry on the empanada was crispy and flaky and the filling was a fragrant mix of spices and tender beef. Houston diners can find Cordua's empanadas at his recently opened restaurant, The Lymbar. In fact, we plan on dropping by this month to try the Monte Cristo Empanada, which is currently on The Lymbar's Houston Restaurant Weeks menu.
For a stunning appetizer, chef Chris Lopez of Galveston's BLVD Seafood was tantalizing taste buds with his Asian-style marinated octopus with ginger, scallions and soy sauce atop a wonton tostada. For dessert, there was a stunning tower of cannoli. They looked beautiful but I had already dug into pastry chef Bethany Boedicker's light and airy honey cake. It was topped with a peach compote, a little pecan streusel and a perfect dollop of bourbon whipped cream.
How often do we hear someone say say, " I don't really like cake?" Well, they would really, really like Boedicker's honey cake. It was an example of what a good cake should be; moist but not dense, sweet but not cloying. And the whipped cream seemed to have been sweetened only with the bourbon itself, a culinary restraint that I personally appreciate in a dessert.

It was brief sample of what festival goers can expect and a delicious one. Tickets and the complete schedule of events can be found at galvestonislandwinefestival.com.

Galveston Island Wine Festival
September 1, 2023 through September 3, 2023
Moody Gardens
1 Hope Boulevard
Galveston, Texas 77554
409-683-4200