Food and Wine Festival a Disney delight

Every year around this time, after we’ve sent the hot summer sun packing, my heart, mind and stomach hear the call of Orlando.

Travel experts say autumn is the best time to hit America’s amusement park capital because of the smaller crowds and amicable weather, but the best reason I know to pack up the minivan and hit I-75 South is Disney’s annual Food and Wine Festival.

Many people see the culinary scene at Walt Disney World as one consisting of fast food burgers and Mickey Mouse-shaped ice cream bars. As for wine? We’re talking Mickey Mouse Merlot, right?

Wrong. Disney World has one of the most progressive food and wine programs you are ever going to see. You want elegant Mobil Five Star? You’ve got Victoria & Albert’s. You want famous chefs? Try Todd English’s bluezoo. Wine expertise? Disney World employs more than 300 trained sommeliers, including several certified Masters of Wine.

It also runs its own wine certification program so that most servers, especially at the sit-down restaurants, have more than passing knowledge about the wine list. That’s all year long.

During the Food and Wine Festival held mostly in Epcot Center, it’s ridiculous. Sure, all the Disney eateries bring out their “A” game with multitudes of special dinners and menus.

The real treat is that from Sept. 26 to Nov. 9, Disney becomes the black hole of the food and wine industry —- no chef or winemaker in the world can resist the pull of the festival.

This year (and this is a mere smattering) the festival will have:

> The Bocus d’Or Grand Gala to determine which chefs will represent the United States in one of the world’s most prestigious cooking competitions.

> Chefs Allen Susser, Jeff Henderson, Cat Cora, Todd English, Warren Brown, Jamie Deen, Gale Gand, Rock Harper, Tre Wilcox and Robert Irvine, among others, on hand for various presentations.

> Several advanced master’s wine classes, in addition to classes on cheese and wine pairing, food and wine pairing, the Epcot Wine School and numerous seminars featuring special tastings of wines such as Chateau Musar and Stags’ Leap Wine Cellars.

> Snow White demonstrating how to make seven portions of Happy Hash in her demo kitchen in the woods (OK, I made that one up).

There is far more stuff that you want to do, see and taste than you could ever have time for.

While I could not make it down to the festival, Disney sent a little bit of the festival to Atlanta in Debbi Sacleux, manager and wine buyer at Epcot’s Coral Reef Restaurant.

The Coral Reef will be one of the featured restaurants at Party of the Senses, the tony food and wine festival within the Food and Wine Festival, and Sacleux was in Atlanta drumming up interest for the 13th annual event.

Sacleux, a Disney lifer, has spent most of her 21 years in the food service industry with Disney, first in Paris’ Euro Disney for nearly five years and for the past nine years at Walt Disney World.

In recent years, Sacleux has focused on improving her wine knowledge and has passed the Level One certification with the Court of Master Sommeliers.

She tries to learn something new every day and remains quite excited on the subject.

“Our guests love to ask questions,” Sacleux said. “And I love sharing what I know with them. Sometimes if it is a new wine for me, we can discover something new together. It’s amazing. [Guests] remember the wine picks we made and they come back and say: ‘Remember that Rosa Regale? That was wonderful; we get it all the time now. Thank you.’ “

Sacleux is particularly wound up about her involvement in this year’s Party for the Senses, one of her favorite events to attend as a guest.

“It is just the feeling you get when you are surrounded by the sights, sounds and smells of all those great restaurants from around the country,” she said. “You walk in with that [tasting] glass and you feel like you’ve just stepped into paradise. [Last year’s] was one of the most memorable events I’ve ever attended.”

Now that she’ll be pouring the wines and representing her restaurant, Sacleux can’t wait to help guests experience the same food and wine magic.

So how does a girl from the small coastal town of Summerville, S.C., become so knowledgeable about food and wine? By getting out of Summerville, that’s how.

“What is the wine scene like in Summerville?” she said with a laugh. “There is none. There is not much going on… . If you go to a restaurant there, there really are no wines to choose from.”

She has high hopes for her hometown when her career with the mouse comes to an end.

Sacleux plans to open a restaurant there someday and transplant some of her Disney food, wine and hospitality training.

Before she heads home, stop by the Coral Reef or catch her at the Party for the Senses to share a glass of wine and a smile.

Gil Kulers, a certified wine educator with the Society of Wine Educators, and teaches in-home wine classes. You can reach him at Gil.Kulers@Wine Kulers.com.

WINE RECOMMENDATIONS

This week, Gil Kulers hands over the wine picks to Debbi Sacleux of the Coral Reef Restaurant, located in Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center. The Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down scale is also taking a week off.

2007 Louis Jadot Pouilly Fuisse, France

$24

Ripe, supple and of medium body, this classic expression of Pouilly-Fuisse shows vibrant Chardonnay fruit flavors with notes of melon and minerals, gently touched with oak, ending in a fresh, silky finish.

2005 Charles Krug Zinfandel, Napa Valley, Calif.

$25

Vanilla bean, black pepper spice and purple plum flavors combine with soft tannins and a mature texture that finishes with lingering raspberries and spice notes.

2006 Benziger Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, Calif.

$23

An intensely fragrant, elegant expression of the varietal, with powerful, classic Carneros aromas of blackberry and spice offset by notes of toast and vanilla, full on the palate, with superb balance of lushness and acidity set in a structure marked by supple tannins and a silky texture.

2004 Stags’ Leap Petite Syrah, Napa Valley

$40

The nose teems with blackberries, red currants, cut hay and burnt oranges. On the palate this sensuous wine is a mouthful of rich, bitter chocolate, French vanilla and raspberries wrapped in round, sappy tannins.