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What Is This Thing? Giambellino Bellini Wine Cocktail
This is what it’s like to write a highbrow-lowbrow wine blog: Sometimes we’re drinking a single-vineyard Pinot Noir, and sometimes we’re drinking a dubious orange liquid that we bought at ALDI. On What Is This Thing?, we look at various wine-adjacent products and try to determine: 1. What is this thing? 2. Should you drink…
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Merlot Thursday: Château Giscours “Haut-Médoc de Giscours” (2020)
Today’s #MerlotThursday wine is actually just 50% Merlot–so I drank two glasses to make it count. 😉 The “Haut-Médoc de Giscours” is the third label of Château Giscours, a prestigious Third Growth estate in the Margaux appellation of Bordeaux. The fruit comes from Giscours’ 60 hectares of vines in the Haut-Médoc, slightly inland and adjacent to…
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Wine Tasting Placemats (Free downloadable file)
Hi, wine friends! I have a new, free download to use for your wine tasting groups and holiday parties: A printable Wine Tasting Placemat! The backstory: I was hosting a Texas wine tasting at The Wine Fairy house this week, and I invited a couple more people than usual. With a few dozen glasses on…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #10: Vin Twenty Three Red Blend (Côtes du Rhône, France)
The quest to taste all the Costco advent calendar wines continues! Next up is Bottle #10, a Côtes du Rhône blend called Vin Twenty Three. The label descriptors for these bottles are mostly breathless, AI-generated slop. But perhaps they may be valuable to someone who is trying to decide whether they will like this wine,…
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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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It’s here! The 2025 Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar
Santa’s wine elves must have been working overtime this year. The Costco wine advent calendar is ready–and it’s only Labor Day Weekend! We don’t grumble about Christmas creep where wine is involved. Holiday wines are an absolute joy…from German Glühwein to little glasses of Port by the fireplace. The earlier they’re in stores, the longer…
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The 2025 Costco Wine Calendar: All 24 wines revealed!
It’s like Christmas came early this year, because the 2025 Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar wines have been named! It’s almost enough to make me want to brave the weekend crowds at my local store to see if that pallet has been plopped down onto the wine aisle yet. (Update: It’s here!) The Costco Wine Advent-ure…
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You hungry, Dallas? DFW Restaurant Week is here!
Say whatever you want about Dallas sprawl, the heat, and the traffic. I like living here because we have some damn good food. And officially starting today, August 4, it’s DFW Restaurant Week! Restaurant Week comes but once a year–and when it does, it brings great cheer. In the summer (in between the wedding and…
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Sherry, spice, and everything nice: The stories behind 3 historic wine cocktails
Do you like wine cocktails? How about wine cocktails with a dash of history? Today, we’re presenting a trio of time-tested drinks from the annals of booze-dom: Hot spiced Mosel wine (Roman period), old-school Spanish Sangria (1964), and the simple, delicious Sherry Cobbler (Victorian era). Each recipe has a little morsel of food-history trivia to…
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Review: Maison Sonoma Chardonnay (2023)
I don’t host a lot of wine-drinking friends at the moment–and while there are downsides to that, there are upsides, too. One of the best parts is that I can buy wine that I like. Rather than stocking the fridge with crowd-pleasing bottles that won’t offend anyone’s palate, I get to indulge a penchant for…
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Texas Winery Bingo (Free downloadable game cards)
Liven up your Texas wine trip with this fun, free scavenger-hunt game! Up to six people or teams can play Texas Winery Bingo. Each card lists objects and words you’re likely to find while doing tastings at Texas wineries. To play, each player or team marks off the squares as you find them. (Complete rules…
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Review: Regaleali Lamùri Nero d’Avola (2021)
The French Paradox has been mostly debunked, but has anyone figured out the Italian Paradox? Logic dictates that cheap Italian food and mediocre Italian wine shouldn’t add up to something spectacular. Bad wine usually makes an even worse pairing…but somehow Italy doesn’t have to play by those rules. You know how it is. You get…