Overview Taste of Vail is a four-day spring food and wine festival in Vail, Colorado, where guests sip in their ski boots: tastings, winemaker seminars and chef dinners are fitted around ski days, and the Après Tasting takes over the streets of the village. It runs in early April with more than 40 wineries and 25-plus chefs, drawn from Vail's own restaurants and from guest kitchens across the United States and Mexico. Taste of Vail is a nonprofit, founded in 1990 by a group of food and wine enthusiasts. On site The 2026 festival opened with The Vail Pour reception at Vail Golf Club. On Thursday afternoon the Après Tasting and Chef Competition filled the streets of Vail, and guests voted for their favorite chef. The Debut of Rosé, staged in earlier years as a picnic on top of Vail Mountain above 10,000 feet, ran at Vail Golf Club in 2026 against the Gore Range. Saturday closed with two Grand Gala tastings, an afternoon session and an After Dusk evening session. Between them run seminars in Lionshead and at Antlers, from a Duckhorn portfolio tasting to a Jackson Family Wines session led by Master Sommelier David Reuss, and winemaker dinners at Ludwig's at the Sonnenalp, Tavernetta, Makoto, La Tour and Mirabelle in Beaver Creek. Audience The festival calls its guests adventurous, epicurean-minded international tastemakers and lifelong learners. Winemakers pour their own bottles at the galas and lead the seminars themselves, so guests get time with the people who made the wine. Talent and Influencers Guest chefs in 2026 included Vinnie Cimino, who cooked a collaboration dinner with Tavernetta's Ethan Diamant, Nick Goellner, James London, Geoff Cox, Bernardo Galindo and David Castro Hussong. Master Chef Daniel Joly hosted a wine dinner at Mirabelle, and the wineries pouring at seminars and dinners that year included Robert Mondavi, Duckhorn, Pax, Peay, ZD and Garden Creek. Track record The festival added the Après Tasting and street Cook-Off in 2005, along with the Rosé Tasting, beer and spirits, and educational seminars. In 2026 it tied its program to mental health in the hospitality industry. Brand presence Partners co-create experiences with the Taste of Vail team: Prosecco in the snow, a cooking class, a wine dinner with a Vail chef, fly fishing, morning yoga or a ski day in the Back Bowls. The Après Tasting carries a presenting name, Buckhead Meat in 2026, and a title partner's name can go into the festival's own. Other partners take a 10-by-10 space at every signature event, banners around town, pages in the program and hotel rooms for their teams, and Maserati, Toyota, Fidelity, Moet Hennessy and S.Pellegrino have been among them.