What: The 6th Annual Northeast Winter Wine Festival
Where: Wentworth by the Sea Hotel, Great Island of New Castle, New Hampshire
When: Festival events begin on January 15th and continue until February 27th, 2010
Why: Your future dinner party guests will thank you for broadening their palates. The festival will feature food prepared by many well-regarded New England chefs, and vintners from prominent local and worldwide wineries will offer pairings and tasting seminars.
If you’re in the mood for a spontaneous winter retreat, attend this Friday’s launch event, and have your taste of over a hundred wines, paired with food from 20 New Hampshire restaurants. Dance it all off to live music in the Wentworth’s two palatial grand ballrooms. Festival highlights include a Valentine’s Day four-course Veuve Clicquot Champagne Grand Vintner’s Dinner ($69.95/person) with Chef Pierre Gignac of 98 Provence restaurant in nearby Ogunquit, Maine. Helping to orchestrate this evening will be Moet Hennessy education director John Tattos. (View the full event calendar here.)
The festival culminates on Saturday, February 27th, with a highly anticipated wine fair and sale; expect wine brokers to be pouring roughly 150 premium wines. (Note: there will be generous volume discounts).
A portion of the proceeds will go to Taste of the Nation.
How to get there: You have your choice of alternatives to Boston, but bargain-priced Bolt Bus will bring you right to South Station for a smooth connection. To get to Portsmouth, take the C&J Trailways line from Boston’s South Station to the Portsmouth/Pease stop. If you manage to snag a good airfare to Logan, C&J Trailways has frequent airport- to- Portsmouth departures as well. From Portsmouth, you can catch a taxi to the Wentworth, or give the hotel a call a few minutes before you are pulling in, and they just may send the hotel van to pick you up. (Wentworth by the Sea, 588 Wentworth Road, New Castle, NH, 603.422.7322, wentworth.com)
Allison is a native New Yorker, who has lived in Rome, Tuscany, Melbourne, Toronto and Los Angeles. She frequently contributes travel pieces to Family Travel Forum, using her own children as guinea pigs as they travel the globe. She is fluent in Italian and Spanish and laughably adequate in French. Her background as an Early Childhood Educator gives her an added understanding of what it takes to travel with kids in tow. She firmly believes that the most important part of education takes place outside of the classroom, on the road, around the world. She never misses a chance to sample local delicacies, as her love for travel goes hand-in-hand with her love for food and wine. Follow Allison at @gourmetrav.
Sarah Knapp is a Brooklyn based entrepreneur whose love for the outdoors and community building led her to the October 2013 creation of OutdoorFest. She has a BA in History, is a Wilderness First Responder and a NY state hiking, camp and boating guide. Her proudest achievement to date is reading the Aeneid in Latin. 
Allison was one of our first top writers and Chief Editor but is no longer working with offMetro. Allison is a native New Yorker, who has lived in Rome, Tuscany, Melbourne, Toronto and Los Angeles. She frequently contributed travel pieces to Family Travel Forum, using her own children as guinea pigs as they travel the globe. She never missed a chance to sample local delicacies, as her love for travel goes hand-in-hand with her love for food and wine. 
Josh Laskin is a freelance travel writer and photographer based in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. When he is not at work or on the road, you can find him in the mountains snowboarding, climbing, hiking, fly fishing, mountain biking, and eating bagel bites.
Annie is a travel writer, environmentalist, and surfer based in Venice, CA. She heads up our West Coast team, keeps our grammatical errors in check, and makes sure our California writers always have a plan for their next adventure. Follow Annie’s travels @annelisemcb.
Carly Pifer is a freelance writer who has been known to follow whims inspired by romantic movie scenes or colorful street style shots to India, Japan, Tunisia and Argentina. After stints living in Seoul, Boston, Paris and Los Angeles, writing and searching for something intangible, she landed somewhat steadily in Brooklyn and has begun to find inspiration in her more immediate surroundings. 
Kate E. O’Hara is a New York based freelance writer and photographer who loves all things food—especially the people who make it and market it. Her writing aims to capture the essence of the food experience; the stories that go well beyond a plate of ingredients. In addition to her love of food, Kate is also known to have a hankering for red wine and craft beer. You can also find Kate on Instagram