Your Grand Tasting strategy for today

Get ready for some excellent sampling and imbibing at today’s Grand Tasting of the Saratoga Wine & Food Festival.

Today, October 5, is the Grand Tasting of the Saratoga Wine & Food Festival. The VIP portion (sold out) starts at 11 with general admission (tickets still available) at noon. At last night’s elegant dinner, both the weather and the crowds were exceptionally well behaved. Hopefully the same will hold true today, but it can’t hurt to share a few pointers we came up with for prior events:

1. Arrive early. The crowds are likely to get thicker as the event goes on, and many of the most popular stations may run out of food. Why chance it? There’s likely to be a backup at the gate when the event opens, so 15 minutes after is just right.

2. Head for the back of the tent. People tend to gravitate to the first thing they see once they get inside, so those first few stations will be mobbed. Walk right past and head for the rear wall. Remember, when you’re standing in line you’re not eating/drinking (unless you’ve brought something from another station, which doesn’t seem a proper thing to do).

3. Eat before drinking. The food is likely to run out first. Plus, not a bad idea to coat your stomach before pounding beer/wine/hard liquor.

4. Have a liquor strategy. You can’t drink everything and don’t want to since quality is likely to vary widely. Decide on a particular drink category and stick to that. Coming off the first overnight freeze of the season, I’m going to look for toddies and similar warming concoctions.

5. Wear dark clothes. Should have put this first. You are inevitably going to spill something at some point so be prepared. And if you get through the afternoon without an accident, give yourself a high five at the end.

6. Study the map, assuming there will be a map of some kind. You don’t want to miss out on a participating restaurant or beverage distributor because you couldn’t find them or didn’t know they were there.

7. Take Lyft or Uber, or have a designated driver. This is a Wine & Food Festival, after all, with unlimited pours of some very good stuff. Don’t have a bad end to a perfect day.

Elizabeth Sobol and crew seem to have done a magnificent job in planning the new format, so the above admonitions may not be necessary. But they can’t hurt. See you there (by the Reflecting Pool) at Spa Park.