Combined with the Kirkland Classic Car Show, the Kirkland Uncorked event drew thousands of people to the downtown area on a beautiful sunny weekend. I’m sure this was a great boost for the city and local businesses. Sadly, however, Uncorked did not achieve its promoted “Wine, Dine, Design” build-up.

After strolling through the usual suspects at these types of events – arts and crafts, free magazines, and the requisite corn-on-a-stick – we entered the intended main draw of the event, the “tasting garden,” with a $25 entrance fee.

Wine: Yes, there were a lot of wine tastes to choose from. But all the tastes combined (what was included in the entrance fee), totaled perhaps three-fourths of a cup.

Dine: On the day we were there, two restaurants were giving out small tastes of food (“one taste per person, please”). The remaining “dining” amounted to tastes of hot pepper jellies, balsamic vinegars and olive oils (more usual suspects).

Design: There was the booth selling specialized bed sheets and the grill booth (that no one seemed to be manning). There may have been a couple more, but I missed them.

A festival like this has a lot of potential to be a unique “destination” event, given Kirkland’s beautiful waterfront setting. Unfortunately, this was not it. I was honestly embarrassed that a friend of mine drove from Ballard for what turned out to be an overpriced snack and a glass of wine.

Jesse Young, Kirkland