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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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Local Sips: Tasting Texas Pinot Noir (and more) at Red Dirt Cellars (Grapevine, TX)
They say you can’t grow Pinot Noir in Texas…but Texans are a feisty bunch who don’t hearken to the word “can’t.” That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Pinot Noir, as a rule, likes a long, consistent growing season and a cool to moderate climate. Those are two things we definitely don’t have here, where summer temperatures…
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Celebrating Wines of Hungary with Günzer Estate Winery
A rare opportunity to taste the wines of Hungary popped up on the calendar this past week. So we hustled over to Total Wine in East Plano for a joint presentation by Thomas Hoeber (of Dallas-based importer Aqueous Spirits) and Norman Günzer (of Villány’s Günzer Estate Winery). Hungarian wines have a long and illustrious history.…
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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…
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DFW Wine Events: November 2025
We love our vibrant, viniferous city! Once a month at The Wine Fairy blog, we pick Dallas-Fort Worth’s ten (or so) most exciting wine events to share with you. But for November, there was too much to choose from–it was impossible to narrow it down. So here’s 20 local wine activities (yep, 20!) to keep…
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WSET Level 3 Class: Week 3 Thoughts
Gooseberries and goosebumps were the theme of the day as we tasted some New Zealand wines…and the reality of the impending exam began to set in. It’s Halloween week and my bones are chilled! I don’t remember ever being this frightened by a test in high school, college, or after. That’s probably because, compared to…
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Stressed Vines tasting at The Wine Authority (Richardson, TX)
The best wines are pressed from grapes that are stressed. That’s the philosophy behind Stressed Vines, a boutique winery that specializes in vine-bothering. These are all wines that have been though a little bit of heck on their way from field to bottle–small-production wines from some of California’s best old-vine, dry-farmed, and high-elevation vineyards. The…
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Wine, food, and more wine at the DFW Italian Festival (Irving, Texas)
It’s State Fair of Texas season in Dallas this month–but if sharing Fair Park with 100,000 people doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, there are lots of smaller community events to choose from. On Saturday, we dropped in on the DFW Italian Festival, a celebration of Italian food and heritage that’s now in its…
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WSET Level 3 Class: Week 2 Thoughts
Back at school for more wine study! I’ve just wrapped up my second weekend of classes at Dallas Wine Education Center, where I am a candidate for the Wine & Spirit Education Trust Level 3 Award in Wines. It’s been a very vinous few weeks for The Wine Fairy. In between WSET classes on Saturday…
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Flâneur Wines tasting at The Wine Authority (Richardson, TX)
We caught the Flâneur tour for sure at The Wine Authority last night. Who can resist a parade of premium Willamette Pinot passing though town? As a special treat, Flâneur founder Marty Doerschlag was behind the bar, answering questions and opening bottles of these beautiful wines. Established in 2013, Flâneur Wines makes organically farmed Willamette…
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DFW Wine Events: October 2025
Here’s to fall–and a new month full of wine experiences in Dallas-Fort Worth! There’s lots to taste, see, and do in October, including street festivals, wine dinners, educational classes, and more. As always, we’re just local wine nerds and are not affiliated with any of the businesses listed below. All info is subject to change.…
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Cabernet Sauvignon: The King of Grapes (Total Wine class review)
Born by happy accident in 17th-century Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon is now the world’s favorite grape. Almost every wine-producing country grows a bunch of it, and almost everybody likes it. It’s no wonder that Total Wine’s “King of Grapes” class always fills the room. “Always”? Yep, this is the third time I’ve taken “King of Grapes”–but…