Grape escape: Hub Wine Expo

More than 1,800 wines, 450 wineries, 13 winemaking countries - and one very irreverent podcaster - make this weekend’s 18th annual Boston Wine Expo an enticing way to spend a winter weekend.

Gary Vaynerchuk, the in-your-face, down-to-earth host of one of the Web’s hottest downloads, WineLibraryTV.com, headlines the show this year, bringing what he terms, “the Internet’s most passionate wine program” to the Seaport World Trade Center on Saturday and Sunday.

Vaynerchuk’s seminars are only two of the more than 25 sessions scheduled; you can choose, for instance, to learn everything there is to know about Spain’s Navarre region, or perhaps taste the bottles of prestigious Chateau Palmer.

Another colorful wine personality, Randall Grahm, will take a look at 25 years of his Bonny Doon property, and what could be a better way to warm up than a vertical tasting of Quinta doNoval port?

Wine is best with food, of course, so celebrity chefs will be performing as well: Boston’s own Ming Tsai as well as such culinary stars as Lidia Bastianich, Sara Moulton and others.

The fun runs from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The former costs $95, the latter $85; or $140 for both days. Seminars vary in price. For details, go to wineexpoboston.com or call877-946-3976.

And don’t forget to practice your “sniffy-sniffs,” as Vaynerchuk calls them, before heading out.