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Certified and bonafide! WSET Level 3 results are in.
My WSET Level 3 results just arrived by email! I’m excited (and more than a little relieved) to share that I passed both Tasting and Theory with Distinction. What does this green piece of paper mean? I’m now qualified to share wine opinions on the Internet, I guess! I can’t wait to start doing that.…
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DFW Wine Events: February 2026
Hello, loveys! Have we got big list of February events for you! This weekend’s winter storm is assuredly going to suck–but the sun (and the wine) will come out tomorrow. So get ready to shake off the winter blahs, get out from under the covers, and indulge your craving for tasty wine adventures around the…
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Texas Wine News Roundup: Winter 2025
It’s a scary time for the wine biz. Our thumbs are tired from scrolling past news about winery closures, sales slumps, and layoffs…and all the associated think pieces. (Why won’t the youngins put down their phones and drink some wine? Is it housing costs, social anxiety, vape pens, or wine snobbery that we should blame?…
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DFW Wine Events: January 2026
In observance of Dry January, this month’s event roundup will feature lots of ways to have fun without drinking any wine at all. Hahaha–just kidding, of course! It’s wine on the calendar this month and every month. 🍷 Once again, we’ve kept an eye out for all the most exciting tastings, wine dinners, and classes…
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Merlot Thursday: Hayes Ranch California Merlot (NV)
Ah, California Merlot. The unsung hero of countless wedding banquets, airport lounges, and (ahem) company Christmas parties with an open bar. We talk like Merlot went away sometime in the early 2000s…but really, it never did. It just shuffled off to the back bar to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and the…
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The Wine Fairy 2025 recap: Our first year by the numbers
Wine friends, The Wine Fairy blog was started in December 2024. That means I’ve just wrapped up my first full year as a wine writer…and what a busy year it’s been. I have been through months of studying, gallons upon gallons of wine, and several short exploratory trips to United States wine regions. (Napa Valley…
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Whoa! I’m a 2026 Wine Writers’ Symposium Fellow
Great news! I’m delighted to share that I (Michelle Gruben of The Wine Fairy) have been selected as a Fellow of the 2026 Wine Writers’ Symposium. It’s a huge honor, and I’m blissfully excited. This coming February, I will be joining some of the best writers in the biz for several days of mentorship and…
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DFW Wine Events: December 2025
‘Tis the season to spoil your palate with the best wines that North Texas has to offer! This month, as ever, we scoured the emails and socials for tempting wine events to make your days and nights jolly. The unifying theme of this December 2025 edition is bubbles. South African bubbly, Italian bubbly, good Champagne,…
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Happy Beaujolais Nouveau Day! Here’s eight fun facts to pair with a glass of Beaujolais
While you’re busy shopping for cranberry sauce and turkey and pie, it’s easy to overlook November’s other foodie holiday. That’s right–tomorrow is Beaujolais Nouveau day! Beaujolais Nouveau is released on the third Thursday in November, exactly one week before Thanksgiving Day. It’s an unofficial beginning to the festive season, and a great excuse to cut…
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Review: Colomé Estate Torrontés Calchaqui Valley (2024)
Not so very long ago, Argentina’s Calchaqui Valley could lay claim to the tallest vineyards in the world. Clinging to the eastern slopes of the Andes, these sites have allowed Argentina to create a unique industry around its high-altitude Malbec and TorrontĂ©s. But in 2012–and officially verified by Guinness in 2018–Argentina ceded the “highest vineyard”…
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Cheval des Andes tasting at Blind Bishop (Dallas, TX)
Malbec’s story is possibly the most poetic of all the grapes. From royal darling in the court of Eleanor of Aquitane, to trans-Atlantic pilgrim, to purple-hued hero of by-the-glass lists everywhere, this is a variety that has survived and thrived across centuries. France lost most of its Malbec plantings, first to phylloxera and then to…
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WSET Level 3 Class: Week 4 (and Exam!) Thoughts
The race is run, the die is cast. It’s all over but the waiting. And–because WSET exam processing times are reportedly hovering around the 10-week mark–there’s going to be a lot of waiting. So, my wine-blog friends, you and I both will have to wait to see if The Wine Fairy earned her Wine and…