The 23^rd Annual Pinehurst Food & Wine Festival, held at Pinehurst Resort September 2-4, will again feature more than 40 international wineries as well as award-winning guest chefs. Guests can purchase tickets to individual seminars or choose a nightly package that includes two full days of activities, a significant value.

Guest chefs this year include Robert Sisca, Executive Chef at Bistro du Midi, one of the hottest new restaurants in Boston. Sisca’s specialty is savory authentic Provençal menu, ingredient-driven and complemented by tradition and technique. Guest Pastry Chef Bill Foltz promises to tempt palates with an array of unique and award winning creations. Named U.S. Pastry Chef of the Year in 2006, Foltz comes from the award-winning luxury L’Auberge du Lac Casino Resort in Lake Charles, La.

The series of events begins Friday, September 2 with a Wine Tasting and Competition where guests serve as judges to score wines in 10 different categories. After an afternoon of seminars, Friday culminates with a Wine and Dine reception at the Clubhouse Veranda followed by a Grand Dessert Reception and tasting later in the evening.

Saturday kicks off with a Culinary Demo and Luncheon featuring guest chefs followed by seminars throughout the day culminating in an extravagant Grand Gala Dinner with live music and dancing.

Sunday’s highlight is the expansive Ultimate Champagne Brunch in the Carolina Dining Room. This year, Pinehurst has partnered with the Moore County Chamber of Commerce to add the annual “Culinary Showcase” to the festival agenda, the final event of the weekend. The Culinary Showcase will feature 16 Moore County Restaurants competing in various categories.

Overnight packages are $280 per person and include access to all events on your day of arrival as well as events the next day through the afternoon. Tickets to individual seminars and events can be purchased on http://www.ShopPinehurst.com beginning July 1. Overnight packages are on sale now. To learn more, visit http://www.pinehurstwinefest.com or call 800.486.4653. A full schedule of events can be found at Pinehurst.com.

Participating Wineries

About Pinehurst

Located in the North Carolina heartland, world-renowned Pinehurst Resort is a 2,000-acre historic property featuring spa, golf, tennis, and other recreation for the entire family. Widely known as the cradle of American golf, Pinehurst has hosted more single golf championships than any other site in America, including the U.S. Open, PGA Championship, Ryder Cup Matches, and the PGA Tour Championship.  Pinehurst was recently named the site of both the 2014 U.S. Open and 2014 U.S. Women’s Open Championships in back-to-back weeks. See pinehurst.com or call 800-487-4653 for a complete list of events and activities.

If there’s a tougher nut to crack than North Carolina’s Top 10 Golf Course list, it must be made of hickory. Being a resident of the newly constructed Villas at Forest Hills in Pinehurst, you can be a member on some of these courses courtesy of Sage Built.

There always seems to be a slight shifting of positions in the Top 10, selected annually by the North Carolina Golf Panel and published in Business North Carolina Magazine, but the names pretty much remain the same.

And you can bet a round of drinks at the 19th hole that Pinehurst Resort’s No. 2 Course will always top the list. That’s a given, and it’s doubtful it will ever change.

The major reason that No. 2 remains entrenched as No. 1 is because it deserves it. Donald Ross did the finest work of his storied career on No. 2, and a reputation steeped in golf lore and legend has only grown over the years.

Now, with the brilliant restoration project recently completed by architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, there doesn’t appear to be anything on the horizon that could unseat this tradition-laden course from its perch atop the state’s elite. Certainly the fact that both the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Opens will be held on the course in back-to-back weeks in 2014 will not tarnish that image.

For the second straight year, Grandfather Golf and Country Club, in Linville, is ranked second in the Top 100. The Ellis Maples-designed course leapfrogged Tom Fazio’s Old North State Club into that position last year and holds firm.

Quail Hollow, in Charlotte, which annually hosts the PGA Tour’s Wachovia Championship, is again ranked fourth, edging Pine Needles Lodge and Country Club, in Southern Pines. Pine Needles, another Ross classic, has hosted three U.S. Women’s Opens.

Rounding out the Top 10 are Charlotte Country Club, the Elk River Club, in Banner Elk, the Country Club of North Carolina’s Dogwood Course, Forest Creek’s South Course, and Pinehurst Resort’s No. 4 Course.

Almost unbelievably, this gives the Sandhills five of the state’s top 10 courses and three more that cracked the Top 20. Pinehurst No. 8 is ranked 12th, Forest Creek’s North Course 16th, and CCNC’s Cardinal Course 20th.

Resting just outside the Top 20 is National Golf Club, the beautiful and challenging Jack Nicklaus design, at No. 22.

www.SageBuiltNC.com

www.Pinehurst.com

Are you thinking that cooking for the family this year is just too much to handle? Well gather your loved ones for a fun-filled Thanksgiving celebration. The opportunity is open to for kids to play golf and eat for free with a parent. We all know that kids can eat the most too! A large number of great activities will be available with craft workshops, tea with live entertainment, game room, Family Fairways golf clinics, tennis clinics, and much more. Guests will be served a traditional southern meal that will also include a concert that will be put on by the North Carolina Symphony

Rates start at just $155 per person / per night and includes:

Overnight accommodations
Dinner and breakfast
A ticket to the NC Symphony Holiday Pops Concert
Historic walking tours, family movie nights, game room, kids activities
Pinehurst will also feature a live cabaret, “Here’s to the Good Life!” on Friday and Saturday if you choose to stay the weekend. With the perfect weather North Carolina fall weather we have been having lately, who wouldn’t?

Sage Built hopes that while you are around the resort you will take a few minutes to come by and visit the newly finished units at the Villas. Our flagship home, The Summerlin, is open daily and available for your viewing. We are so proud of it and the other units and we’ll know you will love them too. So don’t miss out on an opportunity to own one and obtain your own membership to the World Renouned Pinehurst Country Club, which is included in the price of our homes. Talk to a Sales Representative at our model home located at 35 Shadow Creek Ct. for details.

Happy Holdidays!

The Villas at Forest Hills will be featured on the Golfing Carolina’s Golf show Saturday, October 10th at 9am on  620am The Bull! Host Morgan Patrick recently joined us at Pinehurst No. 2 for a great round of golf. Although Morgan shot an 80 to take the trophy that day, a rematch is in the works. Here is the interview from the show in case you missed it live on air. Come visit us at The Villas at Forest Hills and get your luxury Pinehurst home and free membership to Pinehurst Country Club today!