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What Is This Thing? Buzzballz Choco Chiller
Welcome to another edition of What Is This Thing?, in which your intrepid wine blogger reviews wine-adjacent, wine-ish, and not-quite-wine products. Fact: Despite their liquor-shooter appearance and sexually suggestive names, Buzzballz Chillers are technically wine. “Orange Wine With Cream & Natural Flavors,” to be precise. It’s all part of Buzzballz’s unique genius, and one of…
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Pour one out for Trova Wine Market as Dallas beverage scene continues a string of closures
CultureMap Dallas reports that Trova Wine + Market is closing next week, on January 18, 2025. It’s the latest in a series of sales and closures as Dallas’s wine and beer venues continue their rapid churn. Since 2020, the bar, bottle shop, and gourmet food market has offered wine and nibbles to a ritzy clientele…
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Review: CVNE Ribera del Duero Tempranillo (2022)
Cabernet Sauvignon may be my desert-island grape, but lately I’ve been trying to reach beyond the Bordeaux varieties to find the bold, satisfying reds I crave. Especially to drink with dinner. Cabernet and Malbec can be distracting in their bodaciousness: They strut their stuff and suck up all the attention in the room. Wines based…
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Where to find cheap brunch drinks in Dallas
Having brunch with your pals makes you feel rich and classy–like an extra on Sex and the City! Until you get the check and realize you somehow spent a half a day’s wages on Prosecco and eggs. Sad but true: Dallas is no longer an affordable place to eat, drink, and play. The going rate…
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Don’t Napa my Fredericksburg: Can Texas wineries stay affordable?
The Californication will continue until morale improves! Yes, it’s true: Tech and finance dollars–combined with voracious agrotourism–are coming for Texas’s wine industry. The great relocation of California residents to Texas has kept up its pace, remaining the largest state-to-state migration pattern every single year since 2020. We’re all feeling anxious about it. “Don’t California My…
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Review: Sea Sun California Pinot Noir (2022)
When a weather delay turns your 40-minute flight into an 8-hour sojourn at Houston Hobby, then it’s time to wine. For atmosphere, I wanted a little taste of Galveston, so I grabbed a barstool at The Spot. For wine, I was looking for something red that wouldn’t turn my mouth every shade of purple. I…
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Texas Tasting: Blue Lotus Winery (Seguin, TX)
Along the bottom side of the upright triangle connecting Houston, Austin, and San Antonio runs Texas Highway 10. And along this route is the small, rustic town of Seguin. And just a short drive from old downtown Seguin is Blue Lotus Winery, a cozy tasting room with Texas wine/mead and great service. I found myself…
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5 grape-y things to do in Grapevine, Texas
The Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Grapevine, Texas is becoming nationally known for its family-friendly attractions. Legoland, Great Wolf Lodge Waterpark, Sea Life Aquarium, and the Gaylord Texan Resort are all located nearby. But if you’re looking for a more adult kind of fun–the kind that involves crushing some tasty wines with friends–Grapevine has that, too.…
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All the Southwest Airlines in-flight wines, rated
To all of us wine nerds flying basic economy, be prepared to stow your taste and curiosity along with your roller bag. Since airlines restored alcohol service after the pandemic, the focus has been on efficiency and catering to the broadest swath of the flying public. Menus are getting smaller, prices are getting higher, and…
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Hold the wine diamonds, please! A hot take on cold stabilization
One Thursday afternoon, not too long ago, I was sitting at a local sports bar enjoying a whiskey and a Mavs game. My companion, perhaps against her better judgment, ordered the house red, a Pinot Noir. Out came the glass: Pigeons-blood ruby, filled a half-inch from the brim, and speckled with shards of a glass-like…
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My experience preparing for WSET Level 2
Nobody needs an industry credential to enjoy and learn about wine…but what if you just want one? Today, I thought I’d write a bit about my experience studying and preparing for the Wine & Spirits Education Trust Level 2 Award in Wines. I’m planning to take the exam in just over three weeks (January 2025).…
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Texas Tasting: Messina Hof (Grapevine)
When Paul V. and Merrill Bonarrigo planted some vines in Bryan, Texas in 1977, they might not have guessed that the single-acre, experimental vineyard would become one of the oldest and most awarded estate wineries in Texas. Messina Hof wines are familiar to Texas wine fans here and abroad. There’s a large portfolio of wines, covering…