How to experience the Oaxaca Food, Wine, Craft Beer and Spirits Festival

Where would you ever find culture, cuisine, craft beers, artisanal crafts, small-batch mezcals and boutique Mexican wines all in one place? That’s all happening at the third annual Oaxaca Food, Wine, Craft Beer & Spirits Festival, Feb. 24–28, 2027. With seven curated events over five days, Oaxaca will roll out the welcome mat for food, wine, beer and spirits lovers.

Not to be confused with a mass-market, convention center event, this festival is a deep dive into ancestral heritage, alebrije art and regional flavors unique to Oaxaca. The festival caps out at 40 to 50 guests, providing an intimate experience at city restaurants, art galleries and mezcal palenques, alongside road trips to neighboring villages to visit family-owned Zapotec workshops and eateries.

Mexico News Daily is an official media partner of the festival.

Mexican wine?

For most visitors, mezcal, tequila and beer are the drinks of choice in Mexico. But did you know that Baja California is a primary wine-producing region, followed by Coahuila, Querétaro, Guanajuato and Aguascalientes? Beautiful wineries, large and small, dot these landscapes, producing a wide variety of delicious wines.

Because many of these wines have limited or no export distribution outside of Mexico, the festival offers a chance to taste some hidden gems.

Every year, a different group of wineries arrives in Oaxaca to participate in the festival. In 2027, the festival will welcome four small-craft brands from Baja California. Get ready to be wowed by wines from Encino de Piedra, Vino Plata, Vinícola Infinito and Distinto Vinícola. Winemakers will be on hand for pouring and educating guests about their varietals. The festival schedule details which wines are served at each event, so you know what to expect in your glass.

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Meet the brewers

In 2027, the festival is expanding to include Oaxaca’s growing craft beer scene. A multi-course beer garden lunch at the beautiful, Michelin-recommended Ancestral Cocina Tradicional restaurant will be the backdrop for several local brewers, offering a broad selection of their beers and mead.

Chat with brewers from Don Guanábana, Teufel, Meteoro Negro and Casa Hidromielería to learn how they use local herbs, spices, fruits, honeys and other Indigenous ingredients to create IPAs, lagers, stouts, meads and more.

Of course there’s mezcal

No event in Oaxaca would be complete without mezcal tastings and palenque (distillery) visits. Transforming agave into mezcal — still done by horse or by hand — is one of the most labor-intensive and interesting farm-to-table stories you can imagine.

All of this happens during a daylong road trip on Friday, Feb. 26, that includes the option for two different palenque visits: Sigiloso Mezcal or Rambha Mezcal.

Learn the ancestral process, taste eight different mezcal varieties, enjoy a casual lunch and be a very happy camper for the trip back to your hotel. Transportation is included in your ticket, and specific details about “A Day in the Country” are available online.

Artisanal crafts and alebrijes

So much of Oaxaca’s cultural heritage lies in the Zapotec communities surrounding the city center. “A Day in the Country” road trip includes not only the mezcal experiences, but also a stop at the weaving village of Teotitlán del Valle for a hands-on, make-your-own botanical shirt activity, or a stop at the famous Doña Rosa black pottery shop for a demonstration in San Bartolo Coyotepec.

As if that were not enough fun, the day kicks off with a group breakfast cooked over an open-fire comal in the village of Tlalixtac de Cabrera, hosted at a cozy mother-and-daughter-operated restaurant you likely would never find on your own.

The festival winds down Sunday afternoon, Feb. 28, with a trip to the well-known alebrije gallery and workshop of Jacobo and María Ángeles for a mind-blowing demonstration of how these iconic, copal-wood art pieces are crafted. The precision, detail and talent required to create these works of art will astound you.

But it’s all about the food

From contemporary fine dining to street-corner tacos, Oaxacan cuisine is in a league of its own. Indigenous ingredients, distinctive flavors and ancestral techniques combine to create an unforgettable culinary experience.

The opening-night wine reception at the CuatroSie7e art gallery will feature dishes from Andrea Sánchez López, the acclaimed chef-owner of El Tendajón Agavería, accompanied by light music and surrounded by striking artwork.

At “The Med Meets Mexico,” a four-course rooftop wine lunch, Briō Cocina Local (also a Michelin-recommended restaurant) pairs Oaxacan ingredients with Mediterranean influences. Xaak, celebrated for its creativity and presentation, will delight guests with a four-course, wine-paired “Culinary Expression Dinner.”

Though it’s a full schedule, there’s still plenty of time to wander on your own to visit the mercados, shop and sample the wonderful street food.

How to join the fun

Tickets are on sale now via the official festival website, with several options available.

There are two VIP packages that include all seven events; the only difference lies in the Saturday night activities on Feb. 27:

• The VIP Saturday night event is “A Progressive Night on the Town,” where guests will enjoy wine at Vino y Vinyl (yes, request your favorite album), cocktails at a speakeasy hidden in a church and a flight tasting of Sierra Norte corn whiskeys made from heirloom varieties.
• The Grand VIP Saturday night event is “A Winemaker’s Dinner in the Wine Room” (limited to 16 guests) at Copal restaurant.
• Individual tickets can also be purchased for each event.

For updates, follow the festival on Instagram or Facebook. To get your questions answered, contact Donna Shields at oaxacafoodwinefestival@gmail.com.

Donna Shields, an American living part-time in Oaxaca for the past four years, helped bring this event to life. She is part of Dolce Events & Marketing, the Florida-based group behind the award-winning, 18-year-running Key West Food and Wine Festival. Shields traveled 11,000 miles on a motorcycle through most of Mexico while scouting a potential new hometown, and Oaxaca jumped to the top of her list. The festival idea was born when she realized many foreigners had never experienced the amazing cuisine that is uniquely Oaxacan or knew that Mexico produces some terrific wines.