FULL REVIEW of the NEW 2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival Booths!

The 2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival has been in full swing for a while now, and it’s got no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

That’s fine by us since it means we have more time to eat and drink our way around the World Showcase. The festival runs until November 18th and there is so much to do — we’ve already reviewed all the open booths. But now, we’re checking out the four NEW food booths that just opened — come with us!

Wine & Wedge — 4/5

The Wine and Wedge booth is just what it says it is: it’s all about wine and cheese.

Here’s a look at what we got from Wine & Wedge:

🧀 Boursin Fig & Balsamic Soufflé with fig tapenade for $5.75
🥖 Southern Pimento Cheese with bread-and-butter pickled vegetables and grilled bread for $5.25
🍷 Artist Palette of Wine and Cheese for $18! pic.twitter.com/BYeA8RWg9D

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) September 22, 2023

The Southern Pimento Cheese with bread-and-butter pickled vegetables and grilled bread for $5.25 is 100% pimento cheese from the first bite. It has just enough spiciness to it. The vegetables were soft but still had a good crunch to them. The flavors reminded us of bread and butter pickles.

We also had the Boursin Fig & Balsamic Soufflé with fig tapenade for $5.75, which is also an Emile’s Fromage Montage item. The souffle’s texture was more like a bread pudding, but the fig flavor comes through strongest. It also had a bit of a thin sugar glaze that crackled when you bit into it.

The Artist Palette of Wine and Cheese includes 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 for $18. We’re giving the presentation an A+

The pimento cheese (left) was the same that we’d just had. The middle cheese tasted and crumbled like Parmesan, although it was thicker. The blue cheese (right) was mild but left a lot of sharp flavor on the tongue.

The bread was crusty and crunched when we bit into it. It had a buttery flavor, but also a hint of sweetness.

The Riesling was very smooth, but a bit heartier than other Rieslings we’ve tasted. We found it seemed closer to a drier white wine.

The apple brandy was our favorite. It had a nice cinnamon apple flavor that was just sweeter than a fireball without that fiery aftertaste. It goes down smoothly.

The Black and Blue Port was strong and thick with a sweet taste that stays on your tongue. However, it also reminded us of a thick cough syrup.

Char & Chop — 3/5

Next up is the Char & Chop booth!

Up next, here’s everything from Char & Chop:

🍖 Roasted Porchetta with salsa verde and shaved fennel – $6.25
🌭 Grilled IMPOSSIBLE Spicy Sausage with herbed polenta – $6
🥓 Meat Assorti: Trio of meats with grilled ciabatta – $6.75
🩸 Bloody Mary – $11.00
🍺 Beer Flight – $10 pic.twitter.com/Lfv95P7nNt

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) September 22, 2023

Here, you can get the Roasted Porchetta with lemon-parsley salsa verde and shaved fennel salad for $6.25. We’ll warn you now, this is a super fatty piece of meat. The herbs add a touch of brightness, but we also liked the crunchy and sweet fennel, which worked great with the pork. It was a little salty, but the pork also had a nice peppery flavor.

Next up, we tried the Grilled Impossible Spicy Sausage with herbed polenta, puttanesca sauce, and ricotta for $6. This sausage tasted like a mild chorizo and would have fooled us into thinking it was meat. The buttery polenta, sauce, and cheese underneath it helps mellow out the flavor.

The Meat Assorti is a trio of shaved meats with baby arugula, pickled mustard seeds, truffle oil, and grilled ciabatta for $6.75. We loved that salty prosciutto, but the bread was a little disappointing — the char on it wasn’t appealing. We like that you get a nice selection of meat, but if you take too much time to eat it, it can get sweaty. We think this dish could’ve used some cheese to make all the elements more balanced.

The Bloody Mary with Seaside Grown Bloody Mary Mix and Kurvball Barbecue Whiskey for $11 was heavy on the tomato flavor, but you also get some of the celery flavor, too. It’s just a bit of a kick, but we thought it could’ve used more. The sausage on it was thick and juicy, but didn’t add anything to the drink.

Beer Flight for $10, which includes Krombacher Pilsner, North Coast Laguna Baja Vienna Lager, and Motorworks Brewing Midnight Espresso Coffee Porter. The Pilsner was crisp and yeasty. We thought it was light with fruit notes and hops. The Lager was crisp, but had more of a malt flavor than a typical American lager — there was also a bit of sweetness. The Coffee Porter was a little heavy for a hot Florida day, but it had a great deep flavor with a touch of sweet. We got some of the coffee flavor, but not much as we might have expected.

Bubbles & Brine — 4/5

If you’re feeling upscale and have something to celebrate, Bubbles & Brine might be the food booth just for you.

Here’s everything we got from Bubbles & Brine at EPCOT!

🍤 Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail with prosecco cocktail sauce and grilled lemon for $14
🦀 Jonah Crab Claw Cocktail with stone-ground mustard sauce for $12
🥂 Moët & Chandon Impérial for $21! pic.twitter.com/cP3ZWoFOdJ

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) September 22, 2023

We ordered a glass of Moët & Chandon Impérial champagne for $21. This was a smooth drink, with a hint of tartness, like boozy apple juice. It’s dry, but not TOO dry.

You can also get Veuve Clicquot Rosé for $38…

…or REALLY live it up with Dom Pérignon for $69.

Now on to the food. The Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail with prosecco cocktail sauce and grilled lemon is $14. You get a briny shrimp that is bouncy when you chew it. We recommend eating it right off the tail as it’s hard to cut. The cocktail sauce adds a nice tanginess, thanks to the vinegar in it that combines well with the taste of the shrimp.

The Jonah Crab Claw Cocktail with stone-ground mustard sauce is $12. The crab is juicy and tender, and the meat falls off the claw with just a fork. The mustard sauce has a hint of sweetness. We’ll just tell you that this was our favorite thing we had at this booth.

Swirled Showcase — 3/5

After opening a little later than expected, it’s time to try everything at Swirled Showcase!

This booth is home to some sweet treats.

Swirled Showcase opened in EPCOT today! We got the 3 Daughters Toasted Coconut Porter Float with Salted Caramel Soft-serve and the Berry Fizz Fragolino which is a Red Sparkling Wine Float with Vanilla Soft-serve! 🍷🍦 pic.twitter.com/WWlD1NVlfG

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) September 23, 2023

We started with the Mickey-shaped Liquid Nitro Cake for $4.95. The cake is very rich, but it’s also moist and dense with chocolate. The liquid nitro coating on the outside helps hold it together in the Florida heat, so it didn’t melt as fast as we expected!

The three soft-serve flavors here are $6, and you can get it in either a cup or cone for the same price. The Apple-Cinnamon Soft Serve was very refreshing. The cinnamon and apple flavors weren’t too heavy — it kind of reminded us of cinnamon gum but lighter in flavor. The ice cream itself is creamy and thick.

The other ice cream flavor we tried is the Salted Caramel Soft Serve. Even though it is soft serve, it felt like we were biting into a piece of caramel when it comes to flavor. The “salt” part didn’t slap us in the face, which we liked.

There are a couple of non-alcoholic floats for $6.25 each. First, we tried the Cream Soda Float with vanilla soft-serve. We loved this one! The portions of ice cream and cream soda were great and the strawberry flavor went well with the vanilla. We think this is the crowd pleaser of this booth.

This also includes the Fanta Grape Float with vanilla soft-serve! You have to really be a grape fan to like this one, but if you enjoy Fanta Grape, this may be your new favorite way to drink it. We didn’t think the vanilla and grape went together very well, but you’ll have to see for yourself!

The Frozen Apple Pie is a drink at this booth for $6.25. This one used to be at the Appleseed Orchard booth, but it has moved to this brand-new booth for the 2023 festival. There is no mistaking that this drink is supposed to taste like apple pie — the pieces at the bottom feel like they were taken right from the inside of an apple pie. We have to warn you that there are chunks of apple, so you may want to use a spoon to eat instead of drinking this one.

Next is the non-alcoholic Cinnamon Apple Cider for $3.75. We thought the cinnamon flavor was stronger than the apple. It is served cold which is perfect for Florida. While this is refreshing, we aren’t sure we’d get this one again.

Rounding out this booth, there are two alcoholic floats. Starting with the 3 Daughters Toasted Coconut Porter Float with vanilla soft-serve for $13, the coconut flavor here was overpowering. However, we loved how it mixed with the salted caramel ice cream here and the coconut flakes on top added some texture. It reminded us a lot of the Samoa Girl Scout Cookies!

Finally, we got our hands on the Berry Fizz Fragolino Red Sparkling Wine Float with vanilla soft-serve also for $13. We really enjoyed this float, especially with the muddled raspberries on top. The wine is sweet but not too sweet, so it mixes well with the ice cream.