Wine Tasting and 'Dinner'

On Wednesday night, I went to a wine tasting and 'light dinner' after work. It was an event organized by the women's employee resource group. I had really high hopes... It wasn't all that bad. I really enjoyed the company! The food and organization of it all, not so much.

It was in a wine shop, that also sold random gift-y stuff. It had lots of various rooms with tables and seating areas. We were at a table all by ourselves, and felt a little isolated. It seemed everyone knew everyone else - and the three of us are relatively new, so we just kept to ourselves. It wasn't set up where you could mingle. They could have done a better job with that - maybe having pre-arranged place cards to 'mix it up.'

The point of the event was to have a wine tasting, along with appetizer, 'light dinner,' and dessert. They were heavy handed when they poured the wine, but not with serving the food. Each 'taste' was like half of a glass! I had to drive back to Charlotte afterwards, and really could not consume that much wine. I was hoping to get my money's worth ($15) out of the food.

That did not happen. The portion sizes were not all that big. Not big enough for any of us anyway.

The appetizer was delicious - too bad we only got one. It is some flaky dough stuffed with brie, dried cranberry, and sliced almonds.

The 'light dinner' basically sucked. Allegedly it was chicken piccata and eggplant parmesan. It was served buffet style, and didn't want to look like a pig by taking a huge portion... although by this point, I was real hungry. I am glad I didn't. Some of the pasta was under cooked. It seemed randomly put together.

Dessert was amazing, and again we were not served enough. This was like 5 bites. Chocolate gelato, warm brownie, and caramel sauce. I could have eaten like 8 more...

We determined we were still hungry. I was over the wine (we were on the reds anyway...) so we left after the fourth 'taste' and dessert. We proceeded to go to a local pizza place for a few slices. We were just all hungry and unsatisfied.

Dinner #2 was wonderful. Veggie pizza on whole wheat crust and 3 garlic knots (not pictured). I got a two-slice combo, and had the second slice for lunch the next day. Delicious!!! I hadn't had pizza in a while, so this really hit the spot.

Any good suggestions on wine tastings in the Charlotte area?