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Taste of Vail is a four-day wine and food festival held in the first week of April, in the last weeks of the ski season. The 2026 festival ran Wednesday to Saturday, April 1 to 4, and the 2027 festival is set for March 31 to April 3. Unlike Vail's free summer festivals, every event is ticketed and for guests 21 and over, so the main decision is which events to book: a single tasting, a dinner or two, or the Signature Pass that covers all four headline events. For this year's dates and tickets, see our Taste of Vail calendar entry.
The four signature events
The festival is built around four signature tastings, one each day, plus seminars and wine dinners. The 2026 version looked like this:
| 2026 event | When | Where |
|---|---|---|
| The Vail Pour: Opening Reception | Wednesday, April 1, 3 to 6 p.m. | Vail Golf Club |
| Après Tasting & Chef Competition | Thursday, April 2, 3 to 6 p.m. | Outdoors on the streets of Vail |
| Debut of Rosé: The Gore Range Experience | Friday, April 3, noon to 2:30 p.m. | Vail Golf Club |
| Grand Gala Tasting (two sessions) | Saturday, April 4, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. or 5 to 8 p.m. | Vail Golf Club |
The Après Tasting is the festival's street party. In 2026 it brought together more than 40 wineries and more than 25 chefs in an open-air walk-around tasting, and guests voted in a live chef competition. At the opening reception, winemakers pour bottles they don't usually bring to tastings. At the rosé event, wineries without a rosé pour other wines instead. The Grand Gala is split into two sessions. The organizer pitches the afternoon one as the quieter seating with more room and more time with winemakers and chefs.
The mountaintop event moves in and out of the lineup. In 2025 the festival held a Mountaintop Tasting at the summit of Vail Mountain, with the Debut of Rosé at Donovan Pavilion. In 2026 there was no mountaintop event, and the rosé tasting moved to the golf club. For 2027, Discover Vail lists The Vail Pour on March 31, the Après Tasting on April 1, a Mountain Top Tasting on April 2 and the Grand Gala Tastings on April 3. The 2027 Signature Pass lists the same four events as Opening Night, Après Tasting, Mountain Celebration and Grand Tasting. Venues and times for 2027 had not been posted when we checked in October 2026.
Tickets and what they cost
Tickets are sold through Eventbrite, linked from the festival's site. The Signature Pass covers all four signature events plus an official tasting glass. For 2027 the organizer listed an early-bird price of $579, ending October 1 or when the allocation sells out, and a regular price of $775. Prices for individual events in 2027 had not been published.
| Ticket | Published price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 Signature Pass | $579 early bird; $775 regular | All four signature events; early-bird pricing listed as ending October 1 |
| 2026 Connoisseur's Seminar Pass | $270 | Covered the festival's seven 2026 seminars |
| 2026 Kickoff Dinner at Ludwig's | $175 per person | Excludes tax and gratuity |
| 2026 cocktail competition at Archetype Distillery | $50 per person | Limited to 30 guests; bar snacks, five sample cocktails and one signature cocktail |
Every ticket is non-refundable and cannot be moved to a different event. All events go ahead snow or shine, and the organizer may change details, so read each event description before you buy.
Seminars and wine dinners
The seminars are hour-long guided tastings, mostly held in the morning or late afternoon. In 2026 they were held at the Grandview in Lionshead and at Antlers at Vail. Topics included a five-wine Duckhorn Portfolio tasting presented with Wine Spectator, a Southern Hemisphere session with Master Sommelier David Reuss, and a Syrah tasting from Pax Wines. The seminar pass makes sense if you want to taste with winemakers in a seated room rather than at a crowded table.
The dinners pair a winery with a local kitchen for one night. The 2026 festival opened with a multi-course collaboration dinner at Ludwig's in the Sonnenalp. Other 2026 pairings included guest chef Vinnie Cimino of Cleveland's Cordelia cooking with Executive Chef Ethan Diamant at Tavernetta Vail, an Arietta Wines dinner at Makoto Vail, Gemstone Vineyards at La Tour, and a Foley Family Wines lunch at Northside Kitchen. Two 2026 dinners were at Mirabelle in Beaver Creek, a separate resort down the valley, so check the address before you book if you are staying in Vail without a car.
Not everything is wine. In 2026 the festival added a cocktail competition at the Archetype Distillery tasting room in Vail Village on the Thursday evening, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., where bartenders competed and guests tasted. If you find a bottle you want to take home, the festival keeps an online wine marketplace of participating wineries. It also lists Vail-area liquor stores, including West Vail Liquor Mart, Alpine Wine & Spirits, Grappa and Vail Fine Wines, that can order many of the wines.
Age, ID and what to wear
The festival is for guests 21 and over. Everyone needs a government-issued photo ID, and anyone who looks under 40 may be asked for it at any event. If you have food allergies or other dietary needs, email the festival at least two weeks before it starts, and the chefs will do their best to accommodate you.
The dress code is relaxed: "mountain casual" for the rosé, après and mountaintop events, and "mountain festive" for the Grand Tasting. The Après Tasting is outdoors, and the mountaintop event calls for layers and sturdy footwear. Early April weather in the mountains is unpredictable, and the organizer tells guests to pack snow clothes, boots, hats, gloves and sunscreen. Our guide on how to dress for Vail covers spring layering.
Where to stay
The Après Tasting is in Vail Village and the 2026 seminars were in Lionshead, so staying in either village keeps most daytime events walkable, and the free Town of Vail buses link the two. The festival's 2026 lodging partners published rates and discounts that show the spread:
| 2026 lodging partner | Area | 2026 festival offer or rate |
|---|---|---|
| Lodge Tower | Vail Village, about 100 yards from Gondola One | 15 percent off |
| The Sebastian | Vail Village | 10 percent off best available rate |
| Lodge at Lionshead | Lionshead | 10 percent off rack rate |
| Antlers at Vail | Lionshead, on Gore Creek | From $563 a night plus taxes |
| Sonnenalp | Vail Village | From $629 |
| Four Seasons Resort and Residences Vail | Vail | From $750 |
Those were 2026 offers; the 2027 partner list had not been posted. The partner list also included Sitzmark Vail, The Galatyn Lodge, Vail Racquet Club in East Vail, and several hotels in Avon, which is a separate town west of Vail. For a fuller comparison, see hotels in Vail Village and the best place to stay in Vail.
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Parking and getting there
The festival warns that parking in Vail is limited and that the town's garages charge. It recommends parking at your lodging and riding the free Town of Vail buses between events, which also solves the question of driving after a tasting. In 2026 a festival transport partner, Summit Express, offered 10 percent off shared shuttles to and from Denver International Airport and 5 percent off private rides from Eagle County Regional Airport. Compare the options in our airport transfers guide, and see the Vail parking guide for garage rates.
Fitting it around closing-season skiing
The signature tastings mostly start in the afternoon (3 p.m. on the first two days in 2026), so it is possible to ski in the morning and taste in the afternoon. The festival's 2026 partners included a rental shop offering attendees a discount on ski and snowboard rentals at Vail and Beaver Creek. Vail's closing day changes each season, so check it before you book a ski-and-wine trip. Our opening and closing dates guide tracks the season. For the rest of the month, including spring events and what stays open, see things to do in Vail in April. For dinners outside the festival, see the best restaurants in Vail.
Since 1990
A group of food and wine enthusiasts founded Taste of Vail in 1990. It is run as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit whose stated mission is to establish Vail as a culinary destination. The festival's own 2025 announcement listed 58 participating wineries, each represented by a winemaker, owner or senior executive, along with seven guest chefs from around the country and more than 20 local chefs. The festival has described its edition count inconsistently (both "34th" and "35th" for 2026), so the founding year is the more reliable marker.
