I flew out of Charlotte with a direct flight to Des Moines to spend Christmas with my sister and her family. Although my flight wasn't until late afternoon on the 22nd, I decided to drive to Charlotte (about 3 hours) the day ahead and enjoy a dinner at Fig Tree Restaurant, one of my favorite Charlotte restaurants. It is located in a home built in the early 20th Century (I believe around 1910.)
I really enjoyed the potato and leek soup with truffle oil. The server offered Parmesan shavings but I didn't want to dilute the truffle flavor so declined the cheese shavings. For the entrée course I had lamb chops. With the soup I enjoyed a glass of 2012 Alex Gambal Bourgogne Blanc, a wine I also have at home. I mentioned to the server that I had met Alex on several occasions. She said that she did some research on his background to present the wine to the other servers-I love that this restaurant takes wine seriously and does wine education for the servers. She said she likes both Alex's red and white wines and I said I did too. I ordered a Tempranillo Crianza to go with the lamb course. I didn't have room for dessert but ordered a glass (about 2-oz. serving) of the Inniskillen Riesling Icewine. It had been a long time since I had tried an ice wine or Eiswein and I enjoyed it.