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A visit to Siboney Cellars (Johnson City, TX)
Just off Texas Highway 290, a long driveway curves off the highway and climbs gently up to a limestone plateau. Vineyards spread out to the east towards Johnson City, a small town best known as the boyhood home of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Arid plants and clusters of old live oaks dot the property, and…
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Local Sips: Saturday Tastings at Pogo’s Wine & Spirits (Dallas, TX)
Free wine is good wine, for the most part. All but the most hardened wine snobs can generally agree on that proposition. And yet, the more you learn about wine–the more you explore and taste–the more it seems that generic, mass-produced wine loses its appeal. Even if you don’t have to pay for it. Sure,…
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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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Review: Trapiche “Tesoro” Uco Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (2021)
Recently, through weekly Merlot tastings, I’ve been rediscovering the joy of Merlot. And readers of this blog know about my recent infatuation (now entering its second year, so maybe things are finally getting serious) with Grenache. But my long-term honeyboo, my ride-or-die, my desert-island soul grape is still none other than Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s what…
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Swipe, self-serve, and sip at Salute Wine Bar (Fort Worth, TX)
Automated wine bars have been a part of urban life for a little while now. I’ve seen them on cruise ships, in hotel lobbies, and popping up in trendy neighborhoods in big cities like San Francisco and New York. So when I had a couple of hours to relax in Fort Worth, I just had…
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DFW Day Trip: San Martiño Winery (Lavon, TX)
On a drizzly summer Saturday, we wandered east of Dallas to San Martiño Winery & Vineyards. A tip from a wine friend had led us to this hidden family winery in a growing DFW suburb. It’s located in Lavon, Texas on Highway 205 between Lavon Lake and Lake Ray Hubbard. Spanish touches are everywhere, beginning…
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Can you buy wine on Sundays? And other Texas drinking questions, answered
Texas has some old liquor laws that are just plain weird. If you’ve lived here a while, you’ve probably already encountered them. If you just moved to Texas, welcome! I hope you enjoy the BBQ and the free chips and salsa. Also, please stop honking your car horn at red lights. We don’t do that…
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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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DFW Wine Events: August 2025
August is upon us, and we’re serving up a fresh batch of wine-related happenings in and around Dallas-Fort Worth! Savor delicious wine dinners, do a Sangria-fueled crawl through Deep Ellum, enhance your fermentation knowledge with a homebrewing workshop, and lots more. Events are listed in chronological order. Note that Eventbrite ticket prices now include all…
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Becoming a Texas Wine Ambassador (Hill Country Wine Academy review)
I walked into the classroom as a Texas wine fan, and walked out as the leveled-up version: A Certified Texas Wine Ambassador! My reward for a day of attentive tasting and discussion was a snazzy certificate and a pin. Also: A permanent sense of responsibility for representing Texas wine in an industry where it’s constantly…
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Our heart is with the Hill Country
Like many Texans, I was glued to my phone and laptop over this Fourth of July weekend as floodwater overtook Kerr County. I was fervently hoping that more people would be pulled alive from the river and re-united with their families. At the same time–aware of the deadly power of flash flooding–I knew that rescues…
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Texas Wine News Roundup: Summer 2025
Welcome to our seasonal wine news roundup, where we trot out all of our best water-cooler wine chat from the last few months. New wineries, million-dollar deals, and silly numbers, oh my! Here are five of the juiciest wine-related stories from the second quarter of 2025. Story #1: Grape stomp season…kicks off! In Texas, the…