On Some Islands Swimsuits Star; On St. Barts Pleasing Palates Reigns

Island Chefs Create February / April Dining Extravaganzas

To Prove Once Again (Should Anyone Doubt)

St. Barts Is Caribbean's Culinary Capital

NEWPORT, RI, February 2007 –- St. Barts is the Culinary Capital of the Caribbean, as anyone who has been there knows.

Now an association of this French West Indies island's restaurateurs wants to put its own seal of approval on this nomenclature by hosting Gastronomy Week Caribéenne Feb. 19-26 and then on April 13 and 14, a second highly exclusive, back-to-back dining extravaganza.

Wimco, the leading luxury villa rental company for St Barts villas, is enthusiastically supporting these events that will showcase the island's best chefs and their signature dishes.

"St Barts is increasingly well known for its fine dining. Many of our clients tell us that one of the primary reasons they go to St. Barts, in addition to enjoying the privacy of a villa vacation, is to dine well, even very well," says Stiles Bennet, Wimco's Director of Marketing.

The Feb. 19-26 event occurs for seven nights in 20 restaurants, and each restaurant will produce an entrée sourced entirely from nearby islands and local waters.

Then on April 13 and 14, St. Barts most accomplished chefs will collaborate to produce two dining extravaganzas showcasing the high quality and appealing variety of gourmet dishes available in the island's restaurants. A selection of fine wines will be presented to accompany the dinners which will be reviewed by an international panel of eight judges composed of world renowned chefs and food critics from top publications. The restaurant association will sell tickets for approximately $250 each for each evening to help offset the costs. The first dinner will be served at the Guanahani Hotel on 4/13 and the second at the Eden Rock Hotel on 4/14.

To purchase a ticket to one of the dinners in April, please send an email to info@wimco.com with the subject line "St Barts Chef Event Tickets". Inquiries will be answered in the order in which they arrive.

About Wimco Villas

Wimco is the leading marketer of private villa rentals and distinctive hotels in the Caribbean and Europe. Now in its 24th year, the company has been sending clients to its exclusive portfolio of properties in St Barts, St Martin, Barbados, Italy, France, Mykonos and many other desirable vacation destinations. Wimco offers its clients a full range of concierge services from flight planning to restaurant reservations, from getting babysitters to setting up catered dinners.

Fortune Magazinerecently rated Wimco amongst the top five villa specialists in the world as the result of its strict selection standards for high-quality properties, the largest exclusive portfolio of properties in the Caribbean and Europe and its award winning client service.Forbes Magazinerecently rated Wimco's online villa rental service "Best of the Web".

View Wimco's villa rental portfolio at www.wimco.com or call toll-free 1-800-932-3222 (US) or 44-0870-850-1144 (UK).

PRESS CONTACTS:

US --Sara@WidnessPR.com

UK –Sarah.Hurley@mangopr.co.uk