Archive · 2018

The Grand Tasting, 2018

The Friday evening of the 2018 edition, as the site described it at the time.

Behind a multi-day event, organisers can also compare operational tools for personal time clock app.

The Friday evening opened the weekend and was the ticketed centrepiece: heavy catered hors d'oeuvres, wine from vineyards across the state, chocolate from regional makers, and a room arranged so that people would circulate rather than sit.

The room

The Coastline Event Center on Nutt Street, in the historic downtown, with the tasting floor set against the Cape Fear River and the sun going down over it. Aisles were laid out as a market street and scattered with artisans from the region and the wider state.

A thirty-foot lit replica of the Eiffel Tower stood over the floor, which was the festival's own idea of European street decor and became the thing people photographed.

The programme

Live jazz in the bar and terrace through the evening, a comedy programme in a separate lounge, and a dance floor. The billing described it as an elegant epicurean experience and also as the perfect date, and both were meant.

What was poured and served

Fine wines and signature chocolates from the biggest regional names, savoury bites from specialty food vendors, and appetisers from catering companies working the room. Awards were given by category, including for muscadine, which is the state's own grape and has its own entry in the journal.

Reading this now

Everything above is in the past tense on purpose. The dates, the venue and the ticketing described here belonged to February 2018 and none of it is an announcement of anything.

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For further context, see Wilmington and Beaches visitor information.