The Festival Format
Mohegan Sun will stage its 23rd annual Sun Wine & Food Fest (SWFF) across four days — January 21 through 24, 2027 — at the Montville, Connecticut integrated resort, expanding the program to 14 total ticketed events. The lineup positions SWFF as one of the Northeast's more commercially ambitious culinary hospitality properties, leveraging Mohegan Sun's 70-plus on-property dining and bar outlets as backdrops for high-margin experiential programming.
The festival's anchor remains Grand Tasting Day Two on Saturday, January 23, running noon to 5:00 p.m. in the Earth Expo & Convention Center with VIP early access at 11:00 a.m. Attendees can sample more than 1,000 varieties of wine, beer, and spirits alongside offerings from local restaurants and food trucks, with live culinary demonstrations throughout. The format mirrors the festival-within-a-resort model that integrated gaming and hospitality operators have used to drive mid-week and off-peak hotel occupancy, using F&B programming as the primary demand driver.
Talent and New Programming
The 2027 celebrity chef roster exceeds 25 names, headlined by Andrew Zimmern, Scott Conant, Maneet Chauhan, Rocco DiSpirito, Antonia Lofaso, Jet Tila, Marc Murphy, Amanda Freitag, Jeff Mauro, and Dale Talde. The Saturday-night Celebrity Chef Dine Around (CCDA) in the Uncas Ballroom runs 8:00 to 10:30 p.m. and features more than 20 participating chefs, with each dish paired to a wine, beer, or spirit — a proven premium-ticket format for resort F&B operators. New for 2027 is an upgraded pre-event cocktail hour beginning at 7:00 p.m., creating a tiered ticket structure that expands per-guest revenue potential. The CCDA After Party at on-property venue novelle extends the night to 2:00 a.m. with a live DJ, effectively monetizing an additional daypart without significant incremental food cost.
Three events are new additions to the 2027 schedule. The Rosé and Spritz Soirée, hosted by Chef Shawn Osbey in the Cabaret Theatre, targets the growing aperitivo and light-wine daypart that has gained traction across upscale casual and hotel F&B environments. Bon Voyage Bites on Sunday morning at Sift Bake Shop extends the festival's commercial footprint into the checkout-day daypart, converting departing guests into incremental bakery covers. The Spirits & Cigars event — running both Friday and Saturday — draws on Mohegan Sun's proprietary Barrel Select Program, featuring allocated pours from Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, Russell's Reserve, Don Julio Reposado, and Patrón Añejo paired with house-infused cigars.
Beverage Programming and Sponsorship
Spirits sponsorship from Suntory Global Spirits anchors the Asian Market event on Friday evening, underscoring the continuing appetite among major beverage alcohol suppliers to activate inside destination hospitality venues. The USA Wine Team returns for a second year, leading a Blind Wine Tasting Seminar on Saturday afternoon and an Italian Wine Masterclass on Sunday — structured educational formats that command premium ticket prices while reinforcing beverage category engagement. Vintage Cru, the premium wine showcase in the Earth Ballroom, adds a direct-to-home shipping component, extending revenue beyond the festival floor and into e-commerce channels.
A portion of every ticket sold benefits the Denise D'Ascenzo Foundation. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster and mohegansun.com, with hotel packages bundled for the weekend. For operators and beverage suppliers tracking on-premise activation trends, SWFF illustrates how integrated resort properties are structuring multi-daypart, multi-format F&B events to capture incremental guest spend across an entire weekend. The model is increasingly relevant as hospitality F&B operators seek alternatives to traditional outlet revenue in a labor-cost-pressured environment.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
