17 North Beach Street
Nantucket, MA 02554
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TOAST TO TWENTY-FIVE
The Nantucket Wine Festival celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary this May.
story by Josh Gray
In the wake of the pandemic, the return of the Nantucket Wine and Food Festival wasn’t guaranteed so much as demanded by those who have loved it, produced it and worked it year after year, bringing some of the best winemakers and chefs in the world to Nantucket’s shores for more than two decades. Now organizers are gearing up for what they believe will be one of their best festivals yet, and it just happens to be their twenty-fifth anniversary.
The Nantucket Wine Festival was founded in 1996 by Denis Toner, a longtime Nantucket seasonal resident. Nancy Bean began her tenure with the annual celebration in 2007 when she was hired by Toner to become the director of operations. Then in 2012, Toner sold the festival to Bean and her then business partner, Mark Goldweitz. Since then, Bean has become the sole owner of the festival and rebranded it as the Nantucket Wine and Food Festival due to her belief that food is a necessary component to enjoy wine to its fullest.
Boasting what Bean refers to as a “rock star lineup,” this year’s anniversary event will feature some of the most well-known and exciting female chefs in the country. “Now as a female-owned company and really running things since 2012, it’s become my baby now and that’s something I’ve always wanted,” she said. “Over the years we’ve always featured a variety of female chefs and vintners such as Jody Adams, Barbara Lynch, Lydia Shire, Elizabeth Falkner, Tiffani Faison and many others, but this year is really special, and we have some incredible women to watch on the culinary side.”
Those names are expected to include Izabela Wojcik of the James Beard Foundation; Cassie Piuma of Sarma in Somerville, Massachusetts; Silvia Barban of LaRina Pastificio & Vino in Brooklyn; Annie Copps, chef, cookbook author, TV host, educator and mentor; Nantucket’s own Angela Raynor, chef and former longtime owner of The Pearl and Boarding House; Maria Helm Sinskey of Robert Sinskey Vineyards; Fernanda Tapia of Ferncooks.com; Marga Raffucci of Sorellina in Boston; and Amarilys Colón of Porto in Boston.
To commemorate the occasion, Bean and her largely female team—with a few spectacular gentlemen, she was quick to add—have added a new signature event to the festival. “Dames Déjeuner has become one of he most sought-after tickets at the Nantucket Wine and Food Festival this year,” she said. “We will gather to celebrate the women who have inspired us with their craftsmanship, their leadership and their motivation. The luncheon is filled with compelling dialogue, award-winning cuisine, top-rated wines and a host of motivated women who have moved the dial, pushed the envelope, paved paths and built bridges.”
Another highlight among the very full five days of tastings, parties, dinners, lectures and gatherings (more than fifty in total, said Bean) will be the opportunity to see, hear from and taste the food of Chef Conor Dennehy of Talulla in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dennehy was supposed to attend the sold-out 2020 festival, which had to be canceled at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, he will be presenting at the Chablis Grand Cru Luncheon and the Harbor Gala on Thursday, May 18, as well as the Rosé Brunch on Friday, May 19.
Throughout the festival, revelers will take part in programs celebrating diverse cultures and tastes from around the globe and will shine a light on the impacts that climate change is having on the food and wine industries. “We’ve all been through so much the last few years and a lot has come at the food and wine industries especially when you consider pandemic and climate change impacts affecting us concurrently,” Bean said. "We'll have a breakfast where we’ll discuss how climate change is affecting agriculture, and we have a lot of people that want to be a part of that. Another theme will be sustainability, and we have some players coming who are making significant change in that world and have an incredible passion with some really strong messaging.”
Now on the other side of the pandemic, Bean said it’s awesome to be able to come together and celebrate without the hindrances of the past few years. The festival serves as an important early-season boon for island restaurants, hotels, art galleries and other businesses. Bean said tickets are moving quickly but noted they will be offering some special pricing over the Daffodil Festival for the year-round community. “It’s an honor to be one of the launching points of the season, along with the Daffodil Festival in April, of course,” she said. “It’s been so nice to have come to rest in this place on the yearly landscape and to have become so important to commerce on the island during this time of new beginnings and the rejuvenation of spring.”
Tickets for the twenty-fifth annual Nantucket Wine and Food Festival are available at Current Vintage or on the event website, www.nantucketwinefestival.com.
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