Why You SHOULDN'T Visit the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival in July

Our favorite Disney event of the year is coming up SOON — the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival!

2021 Food & Wine

You know we’ll be there on opening day, trying out all the new eats and revisiting old favorites. A lot of people like to go to these festivals as soon as possible so that they can be some of the first to try out all the snacks, but there’s actually a really good reason why you might want to WAIT and go later on this year!

The 2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival runs from July 27th through November 18th, so you have plenty of time to taste the eats and drinks at more than 25 food booths (or “festival marketplaces”) around EPCOT.

Click HERE to Check Out the 2023 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival Booth Menu and Food Photos

But here’s a word of WARNING: Not all of those food booths open at the same time! Most of them do open on July 27th, but four NEW booths are opening LATE.

Disney announced that the four booths are meant to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary. They include the following: Bubbles & Brine, Char & Chop, Swirled Showcase, and Wine & Wedge. Although we don’t have a specific opening date for these booths, Disney has confirmed that they’ll open “later this fall,” so we’re expecting it to be at least a couple of months after the festival’s start.

Here’s a look at each of the booths’ menus:

Bubbles & Brine

Food Items:

Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail with prosecco cocktail sauce and grilled lemon (New)
Jonah Crab Claw Cocktail with stone-ground mustard sauce (New)
Caviar with traditional accompaniments, champagne cream, and blini (New)

©Disney

Beverages:

Moët & Chandon Impérial
Veuve Clicquot Rosé
Dom Pérignon

Char & Chop

Food:

Roasted Porchetta with lemon-parsley salsa verde and shaved fennel salad (New)
Grilled IMPOSSIBLE Spicy Sausage with herbed polenta, puttanesca sauce, and ricotta (New)
Meat Assorti: Trio of shaved meats with baby arugula, pickled mustard seeds, truffle oil, and grilled ciabatta (New)

©Disney

Beverages:

Krombacher Pilsner (New)
North Coast Laguna Baja Vienna Lager (New)
Motorworks Brewing Midnight Espresso Coffee Porter (New)
GoGi ‘Birdie’ Pinot Noir
Bloody Mary with Seaside Grown Bloody Mary Mix and Kurvball Barbecue Whiskey
Beer Flight

Swirled Showcase

Food:

Mickey-shaped Liquid Nitro Cake
Soft-serve in a Waffle Cone
- Vanilla
- Apple-Cinnamon
- Salted Caramel
Cream Soda Float with vanilla soft-serve
Fanta Grape Float with vanilla soft-serve

Beverages:

Frozen Apple Pie (Non-alcoholic)
Cinnamon Apple Cider (Non-alcoholic)
3 Daughters Toasted Coconut Porter
3 Daughters Toasted Coconut Porter Float with vanilla soft-serve
Berry Fizz Fragolino Red Sparkling Wine Float with vanilla soft-serve

Wine & Wedge

Food:

Assorted Artisanal Cheeses and Accompaniments (New) (Emile’s Fromage Montage)
Boursin Fig & Balsamic Soufflé with fig tapenade (New) (Emile’s Fromage Montage)
Southern Pimento Cheese with bread-and-butter pickled vegetables and grilled bread (New) (Emile’s Fromage Montage)
Artist Palette of Wine and Cheese: Assorted Artisanal Cheeses and Accoutrements paired with Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese, Hartley Apple Brandy, and Florida Orange Groves Winery Black and Blue Port (New)

©Disney

Beverages:

Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese (New)
Hartley Apple Brandy (New)
Florida Orange Groves Winery Black and Blue Port (New)
Flight

So if you want to try something at EVERY single food booth at the 2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, you’ll need to wait until these four new booths finally open their doors. And don’t forget that a couple of other booths will also have delayed openings: The Hawai’i booth and The Noodle Exchange will both open on August 15th.

SPAM Sushi

Aside from all the late booth openings, another reason why you might want to visit this festival later rather than sooner is so that you can check out Pluto’s Pumpkin Pursuit — another family-friendly activity that will return from September 29th through October 31st, 2023.

The pursuit works similarly to Remy’s Scavenger Hunt, in that guests can purchase a game board and stickers at select merchandise locations (such as Creations Shop, Port of Entry, and World Traveler at the International Gateway). Only THIS time, you’re searching for hidden PUMPKINS decorated based on Disney characters! In 2022, the price was $9.99.

See some familiar pals?

No matter when you go, though, you can check out the NEW experience at the Brew-Wing booth at the Odyssey pavilion. At this indoor booth, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker will join the festival as the taste-testers in residence, where they will be taste-testing the flavors of tomorrow and today! That’s right — Muppet Labs are coming to EPCOT!

Disney is calling the new Muppet Labs an experience with “flavorful adventure, featuring the culinary creations — and madcap mishaps — of Muppet Labs!” Look out for some interesting new snacks, like the Unnecessarily Spicy, Yet Extremely Tasty Scotch Bonnet Pepper-Curry Wings and the Pickle Milkshake.

©Disney

Another popular offering that’s available throughout the festival is the Eat to the Beat Concert Series. These concerts (at the America Gardens Theatre) are free with EPCOT admission, and take place three times per evening — at 5:30PM, 6:45PM, and 8PM. Iconic bands and artists performed Fridays through Mondays, while local bands performed Tuesday through Thursday evenings. Although the concerts are free, you can reserve your spot by purchasing a dining package.

Eat to the Beat

And don’t forget about Remy’s Ratatouille Hide ‘n’ Squeak Scavenger Hunt and Emile’s Fromage Montage!

Our completed passport! (2022)

Check out these posts for more Food & Wine Festival info:

Stay tuned to DFB for more of the latest EPCOT festival news!

Click HERE to Check Out the 2023 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival Booth Menu and Food Photos

IT'S WINE & DINE TIME!

Food & Wine Festival can be a bummer. You stand in line waiting for what looks like the perfect treat, and it's a bust. But fear not, dear friends, we compiled EVERYTHING you need (and the things to avoid!) to plan the ULTIMATE EPCOT Food & Wine Festival experience.

If you're planning a day or a week at the festival, we've got every performance, activity, and tasty nosh detailed out so you can make the most of your time and money. Listen, it's a tough job eating and documenting the nearly 200 bites and sips, but we do it all for YOU!