How long must a food and wine event persist before we stop calling it a hopeful upstart and start calling it an institution? The answer, my friend, is sipping in the wind.
And so it goes for the Healdsburg Wine & Food Experience, which has comfortably crossed that threshold and settled into its role as one of the town’s most anticipated annual happenings. Experience, if one prefers—and they very much do.
Founder and CEO Steve Dveris sees it in the simplest terms: “Feels like the city of Healdsburg is starting to embrace the event.”
For Dveris, the original ambition was always local pride first, prestige second.
“Our dream was to create something that the residents of Healdsburg would be proud of and have fun attending,” he says. That buy-in now appears to be real, and it’s been matched by a widening footprint across Sonoma County. “Our event has grown to the point that we touch so many local businesses … from local Sonoma County chefs, to Pure Luxury Transportation company, Green Mary’s, Tectonic Audio, hotels both in Healdsburg and surrounding areas, lots of Sonoma County wineries—too many businesses to mention here, but the event has wide tentacles.”
Tentacles is right. For one long weekend, the Experience becomes less an event than an ecosystem—one that pulls together agriculture, hospitality, logistics and a fair amount of cultural capital into something larger than the sum of its parts. Its central trick is pairing the local with the global.
“Our format has always been to pair local chefs with nationally known and or internationally known chefs from around the world,” Dveris explains. “Bringing them together to showcase the local wine as well as international wine elevates them both.”
The visiting chefs, unsurprisingly, take to it. “The outside chefs seem to love collaborating with the locals, and it is a chef’s dream to have access to all the local agriculture,” Dveris says. “We are trying to source as much produce as possible from the Healdsburg Farmers Market, which brings everything together in an—pardon the pun—organic way.”
Moreover, Dveris says the event is more about culinary diversity than it is culinary innovation. “We try to have multiple cuisines and cultures represented throughout the event, as well as the diversity of the chefs we bring in and or hire locally to showcase,” he notes.
Sustainability is also part of the program. “Highlighting sustainability is always the goal. Whether it’s using compostable products for our grand tasting, or showcasing new EV from automotive companies, we try to put sustainability forward whenever possible,” Dveris says.
All of this unfolds in Healdsburg, which already punches well above its weight. The town has quietly become one of the country’s defining food and wine destinations, and the Experience both reflects and amplifies that status. The town, in turn, keeps evolving. New venues like Appellation—Charlie Palmer’s culinary-driven luxury hotel—are entering the mix, hosting VIP guests and anchoring marquee programming like the “150 Years of Beringer” seminar, moderated by Ray Isle of Food & Wine.
There’s something for everyone, from serious wine drinkers chasing perfect pairings at Dry Creek Kitchen to destination diners booking exclusive experiences like Sushi by Scratch. There’s even a new concert series featuring Nashville’s Hannah Ellis opening and teenage guitar virtuoso Grace Bowers headlining.
“Hopefully, she will play her hit song, ‘Wine on Venus,’ where she sings about after she dies, wanting to be drinking wine on Venus,” Dveris says. “Not a bad way to go.”
The Healdsburg Wine & Food Experience runs May 14–17 at various downtown locations. For more information and tickets, visit healdsburgwineandfood.com.
