Fall is here, the weather is cooling, and the prospect of an outdoor food and wine tasting has mentally moved from "it's too hot!" to "that sounds perfect." One of the marquee wine events of the fall, Tour De Vin pairs eleven chefs and over 100 wines in a "sip and stroll" format tasting on Thursday, October 4th. This is the fifth anniversary of the event, and the wine lineup looks to be the best yet. There are selections from Robert Parker favorites both expensive (L'Aventure) and affordable (Bleasdale), along with perennial winners such as Hess, Chateau St. Michelle, Martin Ray, and Landmark. For those who have never attended a non-thematic tasting like this, it's a great opportunity to sample a huge cross-section of grapes and regions in a single session. This can be incredibly helpful in determining your wine tastes, and also usually leads to new discoveries that you might never encounter otherwise. We discovered an incredible MacRostie Syrah and an extraordinary Clos Pegase Chardonnay at last year's event, both of which were from the Carneros region. So next week's mystery is not whether the event will be enjoyable, but rather what wine will stand out most notably from the others. Depending on the generosity of your pourer, most wines will be served in 1 to 1.5 ounce pours (roughly 20% to 30% of a glass). We can say this from experience: if you're not smitten with the wine, take three small sips and dump the rest! Your palate and your date will both be grateful.

For those more excitable about food than wine, Tour De Vin has a fun mix of the new and the familiar this year. Big names such as sushi kings Uchi and Kenichi are participating, but we are most curious to try offerings from The Domain's newcomer NoRTH (Italian) and West Lynn's new Zocalo Cafe (Interior Mexican). Other upscale restaurants on hand to serve up snacks include Roy's (Seafood), Botticelli's (Italian), Eddie V's (Seafood), and Doña Emilia's (New Latin). The food is plentiful at the event, but is served in small portions, allowing you to try one of everything, then double back for a second portion of those one or two favorites you have to sample again.

One final piece of advice: the Wine and Food Foundation is running a membership special in conjunction with this event. Tickets are priced at $75, but new members can purchase a membership for $50 then buy a Tour De Vin ticket for $25, effectively making you a member for free! This will allow you to purchase event tickets at discounted rates for an entire year, so it's worth doing if you're a regular at these functions. All told, we're looking forward to fall weather, good wine, and the laid-back setting of the Whole Foods roof deck. If you spot Austinist there, say hello and let us know what your favorite wine pick of the night is.

[Wine and Food Foundation Of Texas]

Tour De Vin
Thursday, October 4th
Whole Foods Market Downtown [map]
6:30-9pm
$75 general public, $50 for members [tickets]

Images via Lucky Marino and Joe Cuniff courtesy of Wine and Food Foundation.