The SAQ partners with the MONTREAL HIGHLIGHTS Festival’s food and wine component
Air France presents the SAQ Wine and Dine Experience, 11th edition, February 18 to 28, 2010
Montreal, Thursday, November 19, 2009 - Just days before the presentation of the program for the 11th edition of the MONTREAL HIGHLIGHTS Festival’s Wine and Dine Experience, L’Équipe Spectra is pleased to announce that the Société des alcools du Québec, a long-time partner, will again be among the event’s collaborators. As a nominal sponsor, the SAQ is now directly associated with the Festival’s food and wine component, the SAQ Wine and Dine Experience presented by Air France, which runs from February 18 to 28, 2010 in some of the city’s best-known dining establishments.
Through its mandate and its mission, the SAQ continues to foster an affinity with the Festival, particularly its food and wine component-meant to spark interest in the pleasures of the table among the greatest number of people and showcase the extraordinary know-how of local chefs and artisans. For this reason, the SAQ is more than glad to renew its association with the event this year. “More and more Quebecers are thirsty for information on wine, they’re interested in local and international gastronomy and regional terroir products, and they’ve also got the agrotourism bug,” says Christine Babkine, Director of Donations and Sponsorships at the SAQ. “That’s why the MONTREAL HIGHLIGHTS Festival’s food and wine program is the perfect platform for highlighting and communicating our expertise.”
“Our renewed collaboration with the SAQ speaks to the reputation of the Festival’s food and wine component. With its unique pairing concept and prestigious program reflecting all of the major contemporary culinary trends, the food and wine component is a must event not just here in North America but internationally as well,” says the Festival’s founder and president, Alain Simard. Since the year 2000, some 300 chefs, winemakers and conference speakers from five continents have taken part, and Montrealers and tourists alike have shared unforgettable dining experiences as part of the Festival’s Finest Tables, which showcases the cream of gastronomic hot spots in Montreal.
This year, the MONTREAL HIGHLIGHTS Festival team renews its dedication and its expertise with the appointment of Jacinthe Marleau as CEO and Jean-François Demers as special consultant and spokesperson for the SAQ Wine and Dine Experience presented by Air France. The two work alongside Germaine Salois, director of the Wine and Dine Experience, and Jean-Paul Grappe, chief and special consultant. Salois and Grappe have been around since the very first edition of the Wine and Dine Experience. As well as serve as vice-president of government affairs for L’Équipe Spectra for 18 years, Jacinthe Marleau has sat on the board of directors of the MONTREAL HIGHLIGHTS Festival since its inception. She also sits on the board of REMI, Tourisme Montréal and Vitrine Culturelle. Food journalist and wine columnist Jean-François Demers writes for various media in Canada, the United States and Europe. With his extensive experience in the wine warehouses and schools of Europe, as with his curiosity and desire to disseminate the most accurate information possible, Demers has traveled to vineyards throughout the world and shared his discoveries, distinguished himself and earning a solid reputation in the field.
The complete program for the MONTREAL HIGHLIGHTS Festival’s SAQ Wine and Dine Experience presented by Air France will be announced during a press conference held at L’Astral on November 24, 2009 at 2:30 p.m.
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