This year I met up with my sister and brother-in-law and their offspring for Christmas at a resort near Cancun (my first-ever visit to Mexico.) I booked a direct flight between Charlotte and Cancun (three hours) and stayed overnight in Charlotte for two nights before going to Mexico and one night coming home. I already posted on dinner at The Fig Tree Restaurant in Charlotte Dec. 20th (an old favorite.) Dec. 21st I dined at Café Monte, a French bistro and bakery in Phillips Place, Charlotte--it opened in 2007 but was new to me. I had shrimp and artichoke crepes but don't recall what wine I ordered.
On the return to Charlotte Dec. 26 I dined at BLT Steak restaurant in the Ritz Carlton Hotel. I had NY strip steak with a side dish of green beans and ordered a glass each of 2012 Stoller Pinot Noir, from estate-grown grapes in Oregon and a 2011 Tenuta dell'Ornellaia Le Volte. Jenise has reported on the 2012 Stoller Pinot Noir previously. The restaurant lighting was dim but the wine appeared darker than usual for a Pinot Noir. Beautiful rich cherry fragrance and flavor; harmonious and appealing.
2011 Tenuta dell'Ornellaia Le Volte was darkly colored and opaque. Mild in favor, not too tannic. Some herbal notes. Enjoyable.
I also had a lunch at Aria in Charlotte, an Italian restaurant in Uptown Charlotte where I had a glass of Arneis with Fettucine Carbonara and a Sazerac cocktail. I grew fond of pasta carbonara when I lived in a high-rise apartment in Nuernberg-Fuerth with an Italian restaurant in the platz/plaza beside the apartments.
Lots of free cocktails at the resort in Mexico. Over the course of several days I ordered two Manhattans, an Old Fashion, a Clementina, and a Mai Tai. The house wines were a Chardonnay and a Merlot (the Chardonnay wasn't bad) but I also ordered a half bottle of a C.U.N.E. Rioja Crianza and a full bottle of a white C.U.N.E. Rioja from Viura grape. The Viura wine was semi-dry and I liked the red Rioja better but both were an improvement over the house wines. We took advantage of several restaurants at the resort having Mexican food one evening, seafood lunches, omelet station, pancakes or continental breakfasts, buffet dinners and Christmas eve a family gathering of ten around a hibachi station in the Asian-themed restaurant (with the house Chardonnay.) All ten family members recited an original poem during dinner per the request (a week or two before Christmas) from the family patriarch, my brother-in-law.