Overview The New Jersey Wine and Food Festival is a three-day weekend of dinners, seminars and tastings at Crystal Springs Resort in the New Jersey Highlands, and in 2026 it put Marco Pierre White at the head of a sold-out dinner inside a wine cellar that holds more than 6,000 labels. Friday is for seated dinners and a cocktail competition, Saturday runs seminars and tastings into the evening's Grand Tasting and an after party, and Sunday closes on brunch. The 2026 edition was presented by the Blind Ambition Coalition, a nonprofit for the blind and visually impaired. Crystal Springs describes itself as the largest resort in the northeastern United States: two hotels, six championship golf courses, two spas and ten restaurants, with a cellar that first won Wine Spectator's Grand Award in 2006. On site The Grand Tasting fills the Crystal Springs Clubhouse from 7 to 10 on Saturday night with more than 200 wines and spirits from wineries and distilleries around the world, signature dishes from dozens of chefs, live music and dancing. It asks for cocktail attire, prefers jackets for men and turns away jeans, and like the cellar dinner it is 21 and over. The Wine Cellar Dinner opens with a Champagne reception, then five courses in The Wine Cellar. Friday also carries the Top Chefs + Top Wines Dinner and the Sunset Cabaret, Saturday adds a Marketplace Lunch and the seminars, and the night ends at the Biosphere After Party. The resort's own kitchens include Restaurant Latour, rated Excellent by The New York Times, and the Chef's Garden, where wood-fired cooking is surrounded by a working organic garden. Audience The weekend is built for guests to meet the people behind the plates and bottles. Winemakers, master distillers and brand representatives come to the Grand Tasting to meet guests, and at the 2026 cellar dinner Marco Pierre White came into the dining room to tell stories from his career while the Quintessa and Sea Smoke winemakers sat in. Talent and Influencers The 2026 Grand Tasting listed 35 chefs, among them Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, David Burke and Jacques Torres, alongside kitchens such as Saddle River Inn, Felina, Osteria Morini and Faubourg. Featured winemakers that year were Amy and Dominic Chappellet, Antonia Huneeus of Quintessa, Antonin Coulon of Domaine de Beaurenard, Matt Steel of Sea Smoke, Molly Zook of The Prisoner, Tancredi Biondi Santi of Castello di Montepo and Greg King of Lagavulin. Past guest chefs include Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Jose Andres, David Bouley, David Kinch, Michael White and Francis Mallmann. Track record The festival started in 2009, and the 2026 edition was its 14th. The Wine Cellar Dinner sold out that year. Each event is ticketed on its own, from the seminars to the cellar dinner. Brand presence Paul Miller Auto Group ran immersive driving simulators on the floor of the 2026 Grand Tasting. Sponsors can take day-long or weekend-long outdoor activations, put product inside the dinners, tastings and chef-led events, and carry visibility across both hotels and the resort grounds, with the Grand Tasting as the main footprint. The festival's 2026 deck showed more than 20 past sponsors.