Grand tasting a fine time for wine Get your taste buds ready for the annual Wichita Winefest.

Wine and food -- and plenty of it -- will be the focus of Saturday's annual Midwest Winefest grand tasting.

The event, now in its 14th year, allows patrons to sample from more than 300 different wines and try food from eight Wichita restaurants.

The grand tasting -- the centerpiece of the Winefest, --is from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Century II and will include silent and live auctions, cooking demonstrations, seminars and wine-related vendors. Tickets to the tasting are $50, available at www.wichitatix.com. Proceeds benefit Guadalupe Health Foundation.

Other events have included the popular Old Town Walkabout on Thursday and some already-sold-out wine dinners, scheduled for tonight.

Festival planners expect about 2,000 people to attend the grand tasting. Each will receive vouchers for 20 one-ounce samples of wine from a selection of more than 300 wines from around the world.

Proper tasting technique may call for sloshing wine in the mouth and then spitting it out, but that's up to each patron's discretion. Wine tasting is an art, and it takes a while to develop your palate, said Michelle Haverkamp, Winefest director.

"We want to educate people on wine, and this is a great opportunity to come, taste and ask questions," she said.

The grand tasting also will include live and silent auctions for items such as a trip to the Finger Lakes in New York, fine wine packages, a puppy and a dueling chefs dinner in-home package by Wichita Country Club's Damian Lehman and Wichita Airport Hilton's Larry Walker.

Proceeds from the Winefest will go to help support the Guadalupe Clinic -- a health care facility targeted to help the working poor. To date, Winefest has raised more than $2 million, and Haverkamp expects to raise another $200,000 this year for the clinic.

If you go

MIDWEST WINEFEST GRAND TASTING

What: A wine and food tasting that will benefit the Guadalupe Clinic

Where: Century II Exhibition Hall

When: 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday

How much: Tickets are $50 (or $15 for adult designated drivers) and available at www.wichitatix.com, by calling (316) 219-4TIX, or at the Century II Box Office.

For more information, visit www.midwestwinefest.com or call (316) 265-7229.

Now you know

FINE FOOD AT THE WINEFEST

The following restaurants will be serving food to help absorb all that wine.

• Abuelo's: Serving pinwheels, bacon-wrapped shrimp and chili con queso.

• Black Angus Grill/Wichita Marriott: Serving angel hair pasta with grilled shrimp.

• Dream Dinners: Serving herb-crusted flank steak and firehouse three-cheese pasta with meatballs.

• Eaton Steakhouse: Serving mini-BLT burgers and penne pasta.

• Hilton Wichita Airport: Serving a bruschetta station and chocolate and caramel fountains.

• The Olive Tree: Serving tomato and cheese focaccia pizza, fresh grape clusters and cubed cheeses, spinach and feta phyllo and hummus and pita chips.

• Redrock Canyon Grill: Banana pudding.

• Sweet Basil: Serving bruschetta with relish and strawberry daiquiri chocolate brownies.