Lawry's Portfolio Wine Tasting

Lawry's sent out invitations via email on their Portfolio Wine Tasting Event which took place on August 14, 2013. What caught my eye were the great wineries participating. Duckhorn, Cakebread, Stags Leap, Clos du Val, Franciscan to name a few. The price for the wine tasting with hors d' oeuvres was a reasonable price of $48 which included tax and tip.

I got my friend Cindy to go with me. This tasting was to start at 6 p.m. We got there at 5:30 p.m. in time to coat our tummies with their delicious meat balls and potato chips in their parlor.

Promptly at 6:00 p.m. we checked in and strolled into one of their private rooms next to the bar. They had nice size wine glasses all lined up and tables with the different wineries with a few samples of their wine. I must tell you that all of them were good, some better than others and a few that were outstanding. I was upset that one of my favorite, Duckhorn was not there. The representative apparently did not show up.
Cindy and I have never heard of Nickel and Nickel Kelham Vineyard which showcased their Cabernet. We liked that a lot. We also had a taste from Frank Family, that was excellent. I asked how much a bottle cost. The answer was $150. There was another one we thought was also excellent and that was $85.   After several tastings we were getting confused;  It would have been a good idea to take notes. That would have been very hard to do as you had a glass of wine in one hand and a plate of food on the other.

Let me tell you about the food. The had hors d' oeuvres galore. A long table filled with cold cuts, delicious cheeses, fondue, grapes that were baked with balsamic vinegar and grape seed oil (unusual but delicious), roasted vegetables and wonderful figs! Aside from these, they had servers passing mini tomatoes stuffed with polenta, melon with prosciutto and something with shrimp on top (can't remember what the something was)
Cindy and I were enjoying ourselves too much.  I dumped some of my wine in the bucket in order to try as many wines I could. Cindy could not part with one drop as she didn't want to "waste" it.

We ended up taking our plates to the bar and sat there so we could enjoy our food. There were guests waiting for tables for dinner so I wasn't sure if we would be allowed to sit at the bar.  It turned out, that a few people from the wine tasting had the same thing in mind.  My suggestion for Lawry's next time they have this affair is to have some tables in the room so people can sit down. Another suggestion is....it would be a  good idea if the wine representatives have cards with the name of the wine and some information. Most of them just recited the name and description of the wine as if anyone would remember everything. If they had cards or flyers, it would have been easy to make notes. Lawry's did have a list of Wines available for purchase but some of the ones we tried were not on the list.

This was a fun evening and highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys wine. I asked one of the servers if  Miss Duke was around. She said: "Yes, I'll send her over."
In a few minutes, Miss Duke make her entrance. We acted like 2 high school girls that haven't seen each other since spring break. She's my favorite server and always make it a point to request her. She is such a riot!