Left to right: Chef Ming Tsai, Blue Ginger Restaurant; Executive Chef Daniel Bruce, Boston Harbor Hotel; Chef Jasper White, Summer Shack Restaurant Chef Bruce photo © Michael Blanchard Photography

The Boston Wine Expo’s 20th anniversary came with little fanfare. For the winter show, only 9,500 people were on hand; Expo was trying to control attendance, not expand it. Enthusiasm, however, appears to be waning from some members of the wine industry. Nonetheless, Boston Wine Expo is still one of the premier events in the country, bringing together wine enthusiasts from all over the eastern seaboard. It remains perhaps the most imitated wine expo in the country. Expo was founded in 1991 by the Boston Guild of Oenophilists, which still oversees the event. Like all Expos, this one needs an injection of imagination and The Guild is expected to initiate some changes. Expo, however, continues to make a significant impact on charitable institutions, and this year gave more than a million dollars to 27 entities, including its signature charity, Tufts Medical Center. This year’s highlights were chiefly culinary as Expo returned to its Boston roots, bringing in the city’s major chefs, like Daniel Bruce (Boston Harbor Hotel), Ming Tsai (Blue Ginger), Gordon Hamersley (Hamersley’s Bistro), Jasper White (Summer Shack), Michael Schlow (Radius), and Todd English (Kingfish), to much applause. Wine Seminars also had overflowing crowds, as Laurent Drouhin (Maison Joseph Drouhin), Jack Bittner (Cliff Lede Vineyards), Reid Harper (Jordan Vineyards), and Joel Peterson (Ravenswood) were just a few of the 26 seminarists on hand. A new aspect of Expo was the inclusion of a separate and private tasting for the wine trade, which not only brought vendors closer but gave their brands a greater identity. With crowd control and with a conscious effort to attract the over-30 audience, the 20th Boston Wine Expo offered a greater civility, a more relaxed atmosphere, and a better opportunity to taste wine.