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Review: Château Couhins “Les Demoiselles de Couhins” Pessac-Léognan Blanc (2019)
It’s time for some Thai food and Bordeaux–let’s go! Today’s bottle is a second wine from Château Couhins, a classified old Graves estate that is now owned by the French government’s wine research institute. This dry white wine is pale lemon with a frosty appearance (it’s very cold). Superbly aromatic with gooseberry (cats), pineapple, green…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #5: Concentric Circles Red Blend (Australia)
Welcome to another Costco wine advent calendar review! This is an ongoing feature at The Wine Fairy where we annoy our palates (and possibly ruin Christmas) by tasting through a whole case full of random half-bottles this September and October. Today’s wine is the Concentric Circles Red Blend from Australia. It’s a dry red medley…
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Merlot Thursday: Matanzas Creek Alexander Valley Merlot (2021)
Happy, happy #MerlotThursday! Today we’re tasting the 2021 Matanzas Creek Winery Merlot from California’s Alexander Valley. Sonoma County winemakers since 1977, Matanzas Creek emphasizes cooler-climate sites and has built a reputation on their Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot. A little Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Bordeaux-style red is also grown. Recently, the winery has branched out to…
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Review: Early Mountain “Foothills” Virginia Red Blend (2023)
Wine is great stuff–but wine people are the very best. While volunteering at the TEXSOM Conference last month, I met a wonderful couple who know a ton about Virginia wine and are eager to share their favorites with the world. Over towering racks of freshly-washed glasses, wine chat turned into more wine chat. I mentioned…
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Robert Biale Vineyards tasting at The Wine Authority (Richardson, TX)
In the Cabernet-obsessed realm of Napa Valley, Robert Biale Vineyards is an outlier: A heritage winery focused mainly on Zinfandel. When commercial winemaking was restored in California after Prohibition, the Biale family, as immigrants from Northern Italy, chose to cultivate (only) this flavorful and hardy grape. Aldo Biale’s homemade wines were sold–illicitly at first–beginning in…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #4: Sheep Station Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough, New Zealand)
New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is arguably the biggest commercial success story the wine industry has seen in decades. Millennials–including the Wine Fairy household, to be honest–just can’t get enough of its zingy tropical flavors. The Marlborough style is easy to enjoy: No aging, no corkscrew, no swirling required. You will not find a restaurant or…
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Merlot Thursday: Res Fortes “Merlot Madness” Vin de France (2021)
“Merlot Madness” may be the first #MerlotThursday wine to address the elephant in the room. “Unlike the Academy Award winning film ‘Sideways,’” the label reads, “we have always loved full fruit flavour, soft tannins, and easy drinkability.” Hey, we love all those things, too! A weekly dive into a glass of Merlot has reminded us…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #3: Champs de Foin Cabernet Sauvignon (Pays d’Oc, France)
Behind door #3 of the 2025 Costco wine calendar is…gasp! Could it be? A normal wine? So far, we’ve had a ripasso and a flavored white sangria inside the mystery box. Now, we’re getting back to basics with a regular old dry red wine from France: The Champs de Foin Cabernet Sauvignon. The appellation on…
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Under $12 Review: J. Lohr “Bay Mist” White Riesling Arroyo Seco (2024)
In the week after Labor Day, summer is officially over for most of the country. But in Texas, we have 9-10 months of balmy weather each year and are in the market for porch pounders until well after Thanksgiving. The “Bay Mist” White Riesling by J. Lohr is on deck, reporting for its fruity duty.…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #2: El Campeón White Sangria (France)
Round Two of the Costco Wine Advent-ure is about to begin: El Campeón White Sangria. But is this bottle a champion, my friends? We’re about to put it to the test and find out. “Grape Wine with Natural Flavors” reads the back of the label…and that’s usually not a marker of a wine of quality.…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #1: L’Artiste Ripasso (Italy)
Last year, I got the Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar around Thanksgiving, hoping to taste all the wines before December 25. But wouldn’t you know it? The busy-ness (and booziness) of the holiday season intervened, and I fell too far behind. I forgot I had a wine fridge full of half-bottles. I ended up drinking most…
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Merlot Thursday: Captûre Pine Mountain-Cloverdale Peak Merlot (2021)
There’s a certain rebellious thrill to matching a big wine with a small occasion. In this case, the small occasion was 5 PM on a workday. And the big wine was the 2021 Merlot from Captûre Wines’ Pine Mountain estate.* I ordered this glass as a #MerlotThursday splurge after narrowly surviving (an exaggeration, but only…