2000 Castello D’Albola Chianti Classico Reserva
Sangiovese
$29
Score: 93

We first had Castello D’Albola Chianti Classico Reserva when eating at Sambuca’s in Addison.  It paired wonderfully with the steak I had and was decent with the herb chicken Jessica ate.

That was several years ago, and several cases of this wine later, it is official….we have finally polished off the final bottle.  Feel free to cry, we almost did.

This is an excellent CCR, but a little difficult to find in your local retailer, around here at least.  It, of course, pairs the best with red meat and other strong flavors, like herb encrusted chicken, or pork dishes.  Strong currant flavors with a woody aftertaste.  This is an excellently made wine that needs to be consumed now.  It is ready and probably a little past peak already, but still highly recommended and ready to drink.

If you want more information, check out the CellarTracker page on this great wine!

http://www.kresrestaurant.com/

Kres is easy to find in downtown Orlando FL a very easy walk from the Westin hotel ‘to be reviewed later’. A fairly small space, the décor was tasteful and stylish, a bit modern and dark, but inviting and comfortable. Service was prompt and attentive. I was there on a slow weeknight, so it probably much busier on weekends.

The wine suggestion was paired wonderfully with my steak and scallops adding quite a bit to my total enjoyment of the meal. The steak was a little overdone, I ordered Medium Rare, but overall the meal was quite excellent.

I passed on the dessert, I really wanted crème brulee, but they did not have it.

I did see their seafood tower brought out to another table and I admit, the ice sculpture surrounded by delicious looking seafood would be a treat for a table of at least 4.

I saw a commercial the other day for Hotels.com and thought I would go see what the deal was. They are a local company, I have driven by the building several times and thought if they could save me some money on my trip to Vegas then so be it. I found the hotel I wanted, ‘THEhotel’ and they had rooms available for the right dates, even when last week the hotel’s website was saying they were sold out for a day during our time there. I went ahead and made the reservations on Hotels.com since I had thought it was some deal for them. But just to be sure, I went over to the actual website and checked, and WHOA, they had rooms open for the right week as well, for less money. So I called Hotels.com to cancel or ask for a price adjustment, and here is where the fun begins.

Hotels.com does NOT make the same claim most travel sites do, that they will have the lowest published price. Travelocity, Expedia, and Vegas.com all have this guarantee, but not Hotels.com. And, they expected me to pay a $25 fee, even though the reservation was less than 5 minutes old, and I was under the impression they would match the price. The price on the hotel’s website was quite a bit lower, so I just ate the 25 bucks, happy not to give Hotels.com any money considering the rude customer service I received when asking my questions, and the uncompetitive lack of lowest price guarantee.

In short, when booking for a hotel, always just use their website or a travel agent you trust. Don’t waste your time on the “discount” websites that are just more trouble than they are worth, and not actually a discount.

Don’t go to Sullivan’s anymore. We went this past weekend and it was horrible. They ended up calling Del Frisco’s to get a table for us. It’s bad when you would rather pay for a meal somewhere else rather than accept a free meal. It’s also bad when we had our wedding reception at Sullivan’s, back when it was a classy place, and we say to avoid it now.

Ok first, if you disagree with me, fine, dont flame me for having an opinion.

We, me and my new wife, arrived at Sandals Antigua on April 13th, 2003, and departed on April 20th, 2003. We stayed in a Grande Luxe Beachfront Concierge Room, room 123.

Sandals claims to be a five star resort, as you can see from one of the pages where I

Highlighted their marketing. I will merely list the reasons why they are not.

1. Our room was supposed to include a sitting area, mahogany bed, and a daily newspaper. There were none of these. Our room was so small there is no way to get a sitting room in there. The bed took up the entire room, along with a desk, small chair for the desk, mini-fridge, and TV. The bed was not mahogany or raised up high as promised. Both the mahogany bed and sitting area are shown in the brochure picture and promised in writing.

2. We must make reservations for some of the restaurants, which close and odd hours, and some days are just flat closed. Our reservations were lost more than once, as were other guests.

3. The construction of the resort was horrible; I constantly hit my head on unmarked low ceilings and archways.

4. The meals were a complete joke. The portions were tiny, the one night I was able to get a good meal; I ate four entrées and two desserts.

5. The food, what little there was, what horrible. It was some of the worst food I had ever had.

6. Hours of the restaurants left several hours each day that there was any food to be found; despite being assure 24hr food service was readily available by the brochure.

7. Service of the wait staff was terrible. I could never ask for more food, since they never came back to our table. Never asked how the meal was, never refilled water, never took our plates. The entire time I felt as if we were a huge inconvenience to the wait staff.

8. The brochure promised air conditioning in every room. In our room, the A/C had to run at full 24/7 to keep the room cool, because the gap under the door was large enough to slide a plate under, and there was not any glass in the windows, just shutters that didn’t keep the hot air out, or the cool air in. Aside from the room, and a single restaurant, there was not any A/C to be found.

9. Electricity was anything but stable, constant black and brown outs.

10. Room service was terrible. The mini fridge never got restocked, when we would call for things to be brought to the room, it took hours most of the time, if it showed up at all.

11. The TV kept dying. At this point we had enough and just wanted to sit there and watch TV.

12. In our room, there were huge cracks in the walls, that when brought up to management, they knew about it.

13. Screen door was broken and cut my hand.

14. Housekeeping couldn’t just clean the room, they had to mess with the fan, A/C and then sit on the bed and watch TV.

15. The bellboys treated our luggage worse than the airlines, by just rolling it down 2 flights of stairs.

16. Turndown service kept bothering us at 10pm.

17. Guest services never picked up the phone when we called. We had to walk to the front desk for answers.

18. The toaster in the Kitchen only had a single burner working. So, it took 10 minutes to get some toast.

19. Management was totally unhelpful. They listened, but never event attempted to solve the issue.

20. Restaurants wouldn’t go by their own hours. We were turned away at 1:45p even though the sign said they were open until 2. We had to get a manager to get us a table, and then there was nothing to eat because they had already cleared the buffet.

21. Winston, the resident manager, promised to call us by April 23, but did not.

This resort was a total case of mis-representation, and caused us to really regret choosing there for our honeymoon.

We did speak with management 6 times while we were there, and they promised to help, yet did nothing. We spoke to Winston, Steve, the Concierge Manager, and another, yet nothing was ever solved, just a bottle of champagne sent to our room, even though we don’t drink.

Other than Sandals, the trip was great.

Shopping in St. Johns was pointless, but I guess that is because we come from Dallas, which already has great shopping, but it was fun to drive around in the rental car and explore the island.

The people are extremely nice in Antigua. Helpful and friendly.

The water and scenery were just awesome. Loved ever second of the time spent away from the resort from hell.

Spent a little more money than I thought I would, about 700 dollars US, but we did just about everything possible.

Ok, and now I saved the best for last. Eli’s Eco Tour…wow. It was great. We loved crusing around the island in the boat, seeing all the great nature and just enjoying the awesome beauty of the island.

My wife did get a little sea sick when we stopped for snorkeling, but Eli was very helpful and sympathetic. I really appreciated that, as did my wife.

Over all, we love the island, and would go back. But we would stay far far away from Sandals, since they clearly are full of it, and are just out for money.