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Llano Estacado acquired, plans expansions in Lubbock and Fredericksburg
Llano Estacado Winery is staking out new territory, according to a press release from January 14, 2025. Texas’s largest premium winery was recently purchased by a group of investors with big plans. Currently, Llano Estacado has just one public location: A tasting room in Lubbock, Texas that also includes a 200-person event center. The planned…
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When less is more: Small wine lists are best for these 6 types of restaurants
Anyone who’s been in a grocery store lately has noticed the cereal boxes and spaghetti sauce jars are getting smaller. But wine lists are shrinking, too. On Monday, the New York Times published this trend piece from veteran wine writer Eric Asimov: Restaurant Wine Lists Are Getting Much Shorter. In the article, Asimov checks in…
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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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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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Book Review: Oz Clarke’s Story of Wine (2024)
Think about the first wine you ever tasted. Can you remember the flavors, the label, the people who were with you? Place the bottle, in memory, on the left-hand side of a vastly wide, hypothetical shelf. Now think of your most recent wine–the one that’s still open in your fridge, or whose empty bottle may…
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The 6 biggest wine stories of 2024
Happy New Year from The Wine Fairy–and for bloggers and scrollers, a very happy List Week! This is the time of year when all of our favorite wine critics are posting lists of their top bottles of the year. We didn’t keep good enough tasting notes in 2024…so yeah, we’re not doing that. Instead, our…
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“Flabby,” “smooth,” “precise”? These 7 wine words are past their prime
When I read too many wine reviews, I feel like I’m getting smarter and dumber at the same time. On the one hand, I’m learning to talk about wine like the pros do! On the other hand, I’m ingesting a florid word salad that leaves me even more confused about what’s in the bottle. In…
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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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How much should a mocktail cost?
It’s practically the definition of a First World Problem: How much is too much to pay for some ice cubes, soda water, and syrup/bitters in a glass? About five bucks, you say? A big slice of the internet agrees. On a popular Threads post, user “ughchase” writes: “in no world should mocktails cost $1-2 less…
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Review: The Costco Wine Adventure Calendar (2024)
Update: Costco’s 2025 calendar is out now! Peek inside the box here. Or, if you’re curious about what the wines taste like, check out our archive of reviews from the 2025 Wine Advent-ure Calendar. As every suburban wino knows, the wholesale club Costco can be a reliable source for better-than-drinkable wine at rock-bottom prices. The…