By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor

Logo2 This weekend, the Long Island Wine & Food Festival invades the East End. This weekend-long celebration of Long Island's bounty promises to be a lot of fun and the Saturday schedule is jam-packed with events at wineries throughout wine country.

In fact, it's so packed that it might be hard for you to decide just where you should go, so below are some of the events I'd recommend from full list (posted here).

These are just a few of the events that seem the most interesting and well thought out. I'm sure that all of them are worth checking out.

Unfortunately, I'm only going to be able to attend the opening soiree Friday night at Roanoke Vineyards, but if I could attend the festivities on Saturday, these would probably be the ones I'd try to get to:

  • Chef Noah of Noah’s Place in Greenport will be at Bedell Cellars from noon to 2 p.m. cooking up some local seafood to go with Bedell wines.I don't eat much seafood, but Nena loves it and Noah has a great reputation for his work at Seafood Barge.
  • If I had to pick only one place to go Saturday, it'd be Jamesport Vineyards, where they will offer three great-sounding food and wine pairings. The first “Pinot & Pig” will feature the winery’s 2007 Pinot Noir with pork belly by chef Guy Reuge of Mirabelle in Stony Brook (a long-time favorite restaurant). “Sparkling & Spice” will feature the Jamesport 2008 Sparkling Syrah — the Island's first — with food from Mesquite Tex-Mex Grill in my neighborhood in Sound Beach. And “Sauvignon Blanc & Shellfish” will pair local oysters and clams with some of the best sauvignon the North Fork has to offer.
  • Sherwood House Vineyards is combining one of my favorite traditions — the summer barbeque — with their wines. They’ll be smoking traditional Bulgarian fresh and dry cured sausages from Trimona Foods over chardonnay, merlot and cabernet Franc vines.
  • Festival organizer Jim Waters and Waters
    Crest Winery     will welcome local chef Tom Schaudel — another of the event's organizers — who will cook, share stories from his new book and then perform with his band, Hurricane. This promises to be one of most fun events of the weekend and will likely stretch deep into the evening.

Prices vary from event to event, so visit the event site and individual winery sites for all the details and a
complete list of all events.

And of course the Sunday Grand Tasting out in Greenport is not to be missed… even if I'm missing it.

Tickets for the Sunday grand tasting —$50 per
person or $90 per couple — are available
online, including half-price designated driver tickets.