Kapalua has run a wine and food festival every summer since 1981, when the Kapalua Wine Society founded the event to educate visitors on fine wine alongside the resort experience. That makes it the oldest wine and food festival of its kind in the United States — genuinely older than the modern American food-festival industry. Back in the early 1980s, the idea of pairing California winemakers with celebrity chefs in a resort setting was novel. Today it’s a whole cottage industry, and Kapalua has been doing it longer than almost anyone. Forty-five years in, this year’s edition is one of the strongest-looking programs in recent memory.
If you’re planning a Maui trip for late June and you’re at all interested in wine, food, or both, this is the event to know about.
