A Taste of Flight Wine Expo

They should be ashamed of themselves to collect money for this event. They oversold it by probably 200 people. Walked around for 15 minutes, saw hour long lines for less than a sip of wine from each vendor (only like 10 vendors there at the WINE expo). What a crock.

First year here and it didn’t live up to the hype. The cradle of aviation of course is beautiful. Being as big as it is it was way over crowded. We got there at 6pm. Lines were still decent. By 7pm the lines were ridiculous. Not worth waiting for a sip of wine and a pinch of food. Everything was for sale. If you want bigger portions you have to pay. Understandable. The hype made you think everything was free. Won’t return next year not worth the money.

This year they did some improvements compared to last year. There was a lot more food vendors sampling. A lot less wine vendors selling. Last year I remember we were able to buy more wines and take them out.
But we found one vendor who was filling our glasses so we stayed near them. The food from Spumante I think was the name the chef was awesome and was delicious. So with that reason we will have to check that place out.

This event was a huge let down! I purchased VIP tickets for the April 12, 2014 event for the sole purpose of taking an exclusive tour of new wines along with being able to have food along with it. When our VIP tour guide took us around, the place was beyond overcrowded and what’s worse… they ran out of food 40 minutes into the VIP event. Besides that, they also ran out of plats and forks so if there was any food left, there were no utensils there to eat with.
I did however find some new food vendors like Spuntino Wine Bar & Italian Tapas which had fantastic bruschetta samples. You’d probably have a better time on a visit to a winery out east instead of the overcrowded event here.

I was looking forward to attending the Taste of Flight Expo. I purchased tickets in advance and attended on Saturday April 12, 2014. The event was way too crowded. We could barely get to any of the exhibitors. Also, there weren’t that many exhibitors to begin with. You would expect this would be a draw for the long island wineries, but VERY FEW actually attended. At least one of my favorites, Coffee Pot Cellars was in attendance.
I would recommend that you stay away. The event is way to crowded, not enough wineries (actually most of the vendors were distributors) and most of the food was actually for sale. I really felt like my pocket was picked on this one.

Went to the Expo a couple months back and what a great time!
The price was very inexpensive and well worth it. So much wine to try and fun artisan food to try. Cool to walk through the cradle of aviation since I normally would not go to the museum just to go.
At first, entering was really crowded but once you got into the expo, the crowd really was no big deal.
Definitely will go back next year

How things have changed, this is an event to be avoided at all costs. The facility had only three scanners for people to get into the building which led to 40 minute wait times to get inside. A four-​hour hour event just became just a little under 3 hours because of this. On top of that it was 20 minutes minimum to get a sample of wine. Not even 10 tables with wine understaffed and terribly long lines, save your money for good bottle wine that you can drink at home

LOVED IT! So much wine and snacks! I wish there were more water stations so I could refresh my mouth and properly taste the wine, but I understand the space is so limited in the museum.
I do however hate that you can’t buy the wine except it it’s from a vineyard vendor. I wish I kept a better list of what wines I liked that way I could purchase them online or at a liquor store that carries them. Maybe implement a check list? A list of the vendors and the wines they are sampling and you just check off what you liked and didn’t.

Thanks to Unilocal for giving me the opportunity to attend this event — unlike most my reviews, I’m going to keep this one short:
Pros:
+ the event had a VERY wide variety of vendors, food, wine, beer, jewelry etc
+ the museum is beautiful and the entry was organized
+ ample parking and very clean both indoors and out
Cons:
— wasn’t overly impressed by the wine selection there, it was mostly distributors sampling their wines they would typically sample at restaurants. I was hoping to see more types of beers and wines, perhaps of different wine regions in and around NY (the different appellations) and a bit more spaced out. It was such a popular event, it was packed in there. I hope that it changes next year but I do LOVE what they were trying to do, just could’ve been executed better from the vendor side IMHO
THIS has been a review by Gaurav

«A Taste of Flight Wine Expo» was a FIVE STAR event. It had about 15 or so wine vendors with 150 plus wines. The variety was large with something for everyone.
Let me start by saying that it started out way over crowded and OK «time to go», but after finding a nook to enjoy the wines, «bingo» let the fun begin. This is the second time I have attended an event at this venue. It is a very nice location to enjoy wine with the history of aviation around you, it was very «cool».
A shout out also is warranted to Unilocal Team for making tickets available by a contest. Thanks Drew…
There was plenty of wine to be enjoyed at this Wine Expo. There were some wines that I liked, some that I loved and some that I just blah, blah. My first stop was the Winebow table. Their portfolio was very impressive. They had a nice cross section of brands and a very knowledgeable staff. During the pour, they would name the brand as well as the grape and region. Very impressive.
While I tasted many wines, I just lost track of my favorites. The sponsers definitely need an App to track and rate the wines. With a hundred plus wines available here, this would have been a nice touch.
Tips;
1. Start at the opposite end of the venue. Everyone just went to table one and you guess it, crazy packed.
2. Start with whites and sparkling wines. Then go with the reds. You will enjoy your experience better. I found reds will «shoot and overpower your taste buds».
3. End your experience with some sparkling wines. Very refreshing and your taste buds will appreciated. Remember your taste buds will be on over drive by the end of your tasting.
4. Have some snacks handy. You need to restore those taste buds. Wine tannin has an effective on those buds and chocolate, salty snacks, cheese, etc. will help restore and re-​energize your taste buds.
5. Be polite. A «thank you» and «please» goes a long way. I found a couple of moments of rude people.
Overall, this was a fun event. You just needed to navigate the venue as you enjoyed the wines. There was enough of a selection of wines to appreciate the event as well as snacks throughout; cheese, chocolate, bread, hors d’oeuvres, etc. Souvenir wine glasses a nice touch for the tasting. The crowd was mature and they were there to enjoy wine. Wonderful couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon.