Overview The Big Sur Food and Wine Festival is three days of small food and wine events strung along Highway 1 in Big Sur, from a hike with a wine glass in hand to a closing party at the Henry Miller Memorial Library, and its proceeds go to Big Sur's own nonprofits. Each event is ticketed on its own, and they are spread across properties on the coast, among them Alila Ventana Big Sur, Post Ranch Inn, The Village Big Sur and Big Sur Lodge. The festival is run by the Big Sur Food and Wine Foundation, an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) that also puts on the Big Sur Fashion Show and The Ferrari Event. On site The 2026 program opened with the Magical Mystery Tour, a daytime outing whose destination guests learn only on arrival, and an evening reception at Alila Ventana. Friday ran a panel tasting in The Loft at Ventana, Hiking with Stemware, a Pinot walk through the Sierra Mar chef's garden at Post Ranch and the Sommelier Dinner at The Village, which the festival says sells out every year, alongside a one-night izakaya dinner at Big Sur Roadhouse. Saturday brought wine and painting lessons in the redwoods at Big Sur Lodge, a live auction for the community and the Grand Party at the Henry Miller Library, reached only by the festival shuttle from Carmel. Talent and Influencers In 2025 the kitchens included Il Hoon Kang of Sierra Mar at Post Ranch, Tim Eelman of The Village, Christopher Watts of Gurney's Montauk and Ron Mendoza of Ad Astra, and Rajat Parr, a three-time James Beard Award winner, poured with rare-wine specialist Mike Trupiano. The same year added an Indigenous-led dinner with foraged ingredients and an all-women team, including Christina Lonewolf Martinez and Isabel Escorcia. Track record The festival began in 2009 and became a project of the foundation in 2016. Its beneficiary list runs to more than $1 million across more than 20 Big Sur causes, from the Big Sur Health Center, the volunteer fire brigades and the Big Share food distribution to the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County, local schools and the Henry Miller Memorial Library. The committee calls it the largest fundraiser for the Big Sur community, including Palo Colorado Canyon and the South Coast, where, it wrote in 2025, highway slides had gone three years without repair. Brand presence Sponsor levels are named for the coast: Festival Presenter, then Mount Manuel, Cone Peak, Pico Blanco and Pfeiffer Beach. They come with guest passes to specific events, banner recognition at every festival event and ads in the printed brochure. A sponsor can also underwrite a single event, such as the Magical Mystery Tour, Hiking with Stemware or the Henry Miller Library party, or the transportation. The festival also takes sponsors in kind for lodging the visiting chefs and sommeliers, winemaker hospitality and volunteer housing.