My Kiwanis club decided to have a Wine Tasting social, and the girl who volunteered to put the event together did a google search and found Valley Cheese & Wine for the location. Little did she know that she had stumbled upon an amazing gem of a local business in the Vegas area.
Please bear with me because this experience is being recalled from over a year ago-I just thought I'd Yelp about it because it is the reason I keep going back to this store!
About twelve people from our club RSVP'd and showed up for the event. We had a private wine tasting class in the back room-Intro to Wine Tasting or something like that. Bob was very friendly and unpretentious which is important because some people like to be Wine Snobs which is a total turn-off.
He started off talking about various kinds of glassware and how it affects flavor of the wine-demonstrating this to us with a sparkling wine in two different glasses.
We journeyed from sparkling white wine all the way through the reds and ended with a dessert wine. We also got to try some amazing cheeses and meats, and olives that were to DIE for (lucques, I believe?).
In the end we received a discount on our purchases from the evening (EVERYTHING WE TASTED!) and I also bought some international treats from the shelf. The shop had a great selection of treats from all over the world, and it reminded me of a locally owned Trader Joes-without the crazy nazi vegan hipsters running the place. (I can't impress how friendly and NORMAL everyone in the shop is!)
I also signed up for the newsletter which comes regularly. They have frequent events and tasting classes you can sign up for-and the newsletter educates you a little on new products in the shop or upcoming events. They also save your purchase history so you can buy the same or similar wines when you come back. I also like that I can describe a wine and Bob or his wife can ask you some smart questions to recommend a similar wine-and sometimes it is better than the one you were trying to get!
Support local businesses-they need our help, especially in this economy! :) Valley Cheese & Wine is definitely worth the trip!