I'm in Charlotte for three nights for the Charlotte Wine and Food Weekend (held in April every other year.)
Last night I attended the Ken Wright dinner at Fig Tree Restaurant (an historic home built in 1913.) Wine and food were superb and Ken Wright sat right across from me for the first two courses of a five-course meal. I left with two signed bottles of Ken's Pinot Noirs although we did not get to choose which vineyard we wanted. One I took home was the Savoya Vineyard which we did not taste at the dinner so I am curious about it. I will report on the wines at the dinnerl ater as I find the time (maybe this evening.)
Today I am picking up some Alex Gambal wines in town and attending one or two meet and greets with visiting winemakers. I will probably go to the tasting that includes Drouhin, and, if there is time, also visit the meet and greet with Ken Wright, Ehren Jordan of Failla, and Hirsch. I am dining at a Spanish restaurant tonight.
Tomorrow I have three tastings--Pinot Noir, the Heartbreaker Grape (where I will see Ken Wright again), a tasting of Spanish wines, and the grand tasting where all the participating winemakers have a sampling of their wines. I will be dining at Luce (northern Italian) early tomorrow night and then attending the Charlotte Symphony performance of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."
I didn't get to Charlotte in time yesterday to sign up for the wine tasting of 25 Oregon Pinot Noirs early afternoon. The format was partially blind--five wines from each of five winemakers from the same vineyards. The attendees were asked if they thought the wines across were all one vineyard or all one winemaker. Eleven thought all one winemaker--Colin Shaw who was at the Ken Wright Dinner last night sitting to my right thought they were all one vineyard. He was correct.
I left Fayetteville an hour later than I had intended (had to mail some payments, visit the bank, etc.) The approach to Charlotte from the east (Highway 74 and then Independence Avenue) has traffic light after traffic light. Then as I neared my hotel in the SouthPark region of Charlotte there was a traffic accident two blocks south of Independence Ave. on Sharon Amity. Police directed traffic around that and then I saw red flashing lights ahead--a train coming. I sat for about 15-20 minutes while dozens of traincars rolled past. There were also about four school buses but they weren't discharging passengers on Sharon Amity thankfully. Got to my hotel about 5:40 PM and called to see if the dinner was at 6:00 or at 7:00. Unfortunately, it was scheduled for 6:00 so I had no time to redo my hair and change into something dressier. I went as I was but had a great time.