Oenophiles, Start Your Engines

The seventh annual Washington D.C. International Wine & Food Festival, Saturday and Sunday at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St. NW, will feature more than 280 wineries from 14 countries; demonstrations from such celebrity TV chefs as Michael Chiarello ("NapaStyle" and "Easy Entertaining") and Ted Allen ("Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"); and seminars on the wines of Uruguay, Australia, Portugal and South Africa.

The "Grand Tasting" room will offer ticket holders the choice of 1,200 wines (pace yourselves) and food tastings from popular area chefs, including Roberto Donna of Galileo, Katsuya Fukushima of Cafe Atlantico and Vikram Garg of IndeBleu. In addition, leading wine critics such as Mark Oldman of the magazine Every Day With Rachael Ray, Gloria Maroti Frazee of Wine Spectator, Ben Giliberti of The Washington Post and Michael Franz of WineReviewOnline.com will lead tastings of different international varietals.

Festival hours are 1-5 each day. Tickets are $71 for one day and $92 for both; seminars are additional. For tickets and schedule information, call 800-343-1174 or visit http://www.dcwinefestival.com/ or http://www.wine-expos.com/ .

-- Eve Zibart