-
Costco Advent Calendar Wine #14: Solo Reflections Chardonnay (Australia)
Another day, another Chardonnay! I’m busting out my best stemless glassware for a casual pour from Down Under, the 2025 Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar‘s wine #14: Solo Reflections Chardonnay. It’s well-chilled–and I’m ready to be well-chilled, too. Costco wine can help with that. No thinking, just drinking. But is Solo Reflections a wine that likes…
-
Merlot Thursday: Château Simard Saint-Émilion Grand Cru (2018)
Merlot Thursdays are taking us to wine regions far and wide–but it seems all roads lead back to Saint-Émilion. Bordeaux’s Right Bank, admittedly, isn’t the most imaginative place to commune with the variety. Still, it’s where I tend to end up when I want to drink Merlot at its most pleasing. Complex fragrance, abundant fruit,…
-
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 Torrontés. But in 2012–and officially verified by Guinness in 2018–Argentina ceded the “highest vineyard”…
-
Costco Advent Calendar Wine #13: Latitude 44 Pinot Noir (France)
A savage wine review is a delightful thing. I run across them most often on Reddit. Usually it’s written by someone who doesn’t like wine very much–and often, by someone who has resorted to drinking wine after running out of hard liquor. “Chewed raisins,” “prison toilet hooch,” “liquid vanilla candle.” (Or my new favorite natural…
-
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.…
-
Merlot Thursday: Bogle Family Vineyards California Merlot (2022)
Another #MerlotThursday is upon us…and dang it if I’m not behind on my Merlot tasting. The Wine Fairy is headed to a Hungarian wine class later this afternoon, where there will almost certainly not be any Merlot to write about. The hours are ticking down, and it seems the only option is to run out…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Wines of the Southern Rhône with Gabriel Meffre
The Rhône Valley came to visit Texas with a tasting of seven different appellations from Gabriel Meffre! From a delicate white Côtes du Rhône to a substantial Châteauneuf, these recent-vintage wines showed the range and drinkability of one of France’s most important regions. The class was hosted by Total Wine, which is the exclusive US…
-
Merlot Thursday: Feudi di San Gregorio Pàtrimo Campania Rosso IGT (2016)
Here we go again, tasting Merlots from near and far! Merlot lovers, it’s you and me against a 21-year-old road-trip movie. (That’s right–Sideways was released on October 22, 2004. So as of last week, it’s officially old enough to drink.) While somms and wine writers are working doggedly to bring Merlot back, there are places…
-
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…
-
Costco Advent Calendar Wine #12: Blue Seirína White Blend (Greece)
The half-bottles keep comin’ and they don’t stop comin’! I’m now halfway through tasting all the wines in the 2025 Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar. It’s taken longer than I thought. (In truth, there’s better stuff to drink most evenings.) But at this rate, I’ll still be done with the reviews well before Christmas Day. Tonight’s…