Have you ever wanted to go to a cozy place and get a glass of fine wine without all the pretentiousness of wine snobbery? Maybe you’ve wanted to find a place that is classy and fun without being overly expensive? Then you should check out The Wine Shop located in the Rivergate Shopping Center in South Charlotte, NC. This is a perfect place to hang out with friends or even grab a glass on your own while you ruminate over a good book, your journal, or class notes. The menu consists of quite a nice selection of red and white wines, along with a few dessert and bubbly wines; there is something to fit your taste regardless of what you may be feeling.
Most wine is served in three sizes, a tasting size, a flight (a half glass), or full glass. You can also buy a whole bottle of some of them, but please note there is a uncorking fee for each bottle added onto your tab. What is really nice is to order several tasting sizes and get a panoply of flavors for your tongue to taste, however, getting a half glass is also nice as an appetizer if you know you’ll be having dinner elsewhere.
Although The Wine Shop specializes in wine, they also serve a wonderful menu filled with lunch and dinner options of soups, salads, sandwiches and full entrees. If a whole meal is not to your liking, the menu contains many cheese and meat choices to go with your wine. However, my personal favorites on the menu are the $7 appetizers. Their calamari and crab cakes are excellent and served with spicy pesto aioli sauce. My most recent love is the vanilla crème brûlée with a Muscat dessert wine. There is no need for dinner after having that, and it serves as the perfect treat after a long day. If you can get there between 4-6 Sunday through Thursday, you’ll get the benefit of Happy Hour, with select wines at $5 a glass and $6 appetizers, and on Sundays they also serve brunch starting at 11 am.
The Wine Shop offers a fantastic selection of wine, but if wine is not your forte, feel free to browse all of their world class beers. They have an extensive beer selection sure to please every palate. Beers from around the world, stouts, lagers, ales, and domestics fill their coolers. I’m not a beer drinker, so I can’t say too much about them, so go there and let me know.
More than just a wine bar, The Wine Shop is, as the name implies, a shop. While there feel free to browse the shelves for your own bottle. You can even buy it off the shelves and drink it there, even if it is not on the main menu. They also sell beer and various cigars. There are a few samples of art on the walls that are also for sale.
What I love most about The Wine Shop is its casual atmosphere and great staff. My first time going there I admitted I was clueless about wine selection and my waitress was more than happy to give me a few ideas without acting like I was a complete moron. The prices are not bad for what you are paying for; I normally spend a little under $15 for a glass of wine and an appetizer or dessert. I haven’t had a whole meal there, since I have an odd way of treating it more like a coffee shop than a restaurant, but it would probably be about $25 a person with a glass of wine + meal (that’s on the high side of the scale). But it’s cozy, classy, and unpretentious, and served with a great glass of wine. Those things all together in one place are hard to find and hard to beat.
P.S. They do have a VIP room for private parties and a nice patio for summer evenings. It’s a popular place and you might want to get there a bit early when the weather is warm.
Juror #11
Filed under: Great Eats, North America | Tagged: appetizers, art for sale, calamari, Charlotte, cheeses and meats, cigars, classy, coffee shop atmosphere, cozy, crab cakes, flights, full entrees, full glasses, great eat, hangout spot, happy hour, Juror #11, Juror Review, Muscat dessert wine, NC, North America, North Carolina, outdoor patio seating, quiet atmosphere, Rivergate Shopping Center, salads, sandwiches, soups, South Charlotte wine, tasting size, The Wine Shop, uncorking fee, unpretentious, vanilla creme brulee, VIP room, wine, wine menu, world beer selection | Leave a Comment »
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