Disclosure: I received a 2.5 LB chocolate bunny to give away in exchange for a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I was recently invited to an evening of wine and chocolate tasting at Gayle’s Chocolates in Royal Oak. I had heard about Gayle’s and even passed the stores multiple times in Royal Oak and in the airport, but I never stopped in. I had no idea what I was missing.

I am a huge fan of successful women and Gayle’s story is no different. Gayle Harte started Gayle’s Chocolates in 1979 with one saucepan on a stove in Huntington Woods. Gayle started the business because she couldn’t find an intense enough piece of chocolate to satisfy her sweet tooth and decided to make one herself.

This is the real Gayle!

At this event, Gayle’s organized a chocolate and wine tasting led by Elie Boudt from the Elie Wine Company. I wasn’t familiar with Elie’s before the event, but was excited to hear that they have a store close by in Birmingham that I can visit to purchase wine and get personal recommendations. I have a feeling that I will be hitting them up for some future Wine of the Week recommendations!

The chocolate and wine tasting were very well thought out with different concentrations of chocolate paired with a variety of dry and sweet wines. I learned a few things to share with you:

• Smell, true taste and taste sensation are the three important parts of wine tasting
• We can only taste sour, sweet, bitter and salt
• Smell the wine & chocolate before you taste to take in full flavor
• If the wine and chocolate are too cold or warm you aren’t going to get an accurate scent
• Don’t keep your chocolate in the refrigerator

After the tasting I got to check out all of the fun different in-store chocolates. I was literally a kid in the candy store! Gayle’s makes all sorts of fun chocolate items like chocolate pizzas, chocolate shoes, chocolate Eiffel Towers and more!

Gayle’s also has a little coffee cafe where you can get macaroons (my favorite)!

Since we are quickly approaching Easter, Gayle’s has a plethora of Easter treats to choose from and is giving you the chance to win your very own giant chocolate Easter bunny!

To enter please fill out the Rafflecopter below and Gayle’s will ship one of these chocolate beauties right to your home. This giveaway is ending on 3/25 at 5:30 p.m. and the winner will be announced that evening:

a Rafflecopter giveaway