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Review: Querceto Chianti Classico Riserva (2019)
I have a bottle of Chianti to talk about–but first, a magical oak tree story. Tuesday night I was out at dinner with my wife Sarah, and as we were leaving we got caught in a freak hailstorm. It was typical screwy North Texas early spring weather. Cool and sunny and then…bam! Blinding rain and…
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Review: Don Benigno Amontillado Sherry
Sherry is not easy to come by in this town, folks. (“Cherry? Yeah, we have cherry vodka.”) If you’re seeking Sherry (and you’re lucky), the liquor store person will lead you to a dusty shelf over by the jug wines, where approximately 95% of the fortified wines will be syrupy sweet and/or flavored. Even my…
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Review: Long Shadows Poet’s Leap Columbia Valley Riesling (2022)
We can do some damage to a Riesling in this house–or as my wife says, “We make short work of tall bottles.” Riesling may not ever be trendy, but it’s classic. It’s one of my favorite white grapes. My earliest experiences with Riesling were the blue bottles of Spätlese from the grocery store or the…
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Mixing it up with Clos du Val’s blending seminar
It was a fab Cab lab at The Wine Authority this past Saturday. Napa Valley’s Clos du Val was in the house with barrel samples from the 2023 vintage–and one very special finished wine, the 2021 Yettalil blend ($200 retail). I booked the blending seminar for “educational” purposes. My wife (and fellow Cab lover) Sarah…
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Under $12 Review: Ed Edmundo Red Blend (2020)
I am not now (nor have I ever been) “serious” about wine. Ew. Perish the thought. But at some point–and it wasn’t too long ago–there was a change. I got a little more…focused about wine. Or disciplined. Or perceptive. Something shifted, and I started paying more attention to what was in the glass. The result…
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My WSET Level 3 study diary: How it’s going so far
It’s back to school time! Some of y’all may know that I’m currently working my way through the WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) certifications. So, in between all the bottle reviews and local wine topics, I thought I’d share a little bit about how that’s going so far. I took the Level 2 Award…
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Review: Lavau Tavel Rosé (2020)
My most recent wine find is a shamrock in a field of clovers. A crane among chickens. A redhead in a room full of blondes. It’s a piquant and powerful rosé from Tavel. I’d heard about Tavel from wine geeks. But I’d never had the opportunity to taste one because unlike Côtes-du-Rhône and Provence rosés…
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DFW Wine Events: April 2025
Ah, April. When spring is in the air, and a wine lover’s thoughts turn gently from Sherry to rosé. This month, we’re debuting a new monthly feature on The Wine Fairy blog: Local events! These are our top ten picks for viniferous April happenings in our wonderful city of Dallas and nearby areas. Events are…
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Review: The Black Stump Durif-Shiraz (2022)
An oddball wine from Down Under is tonight’s random tipple. I don’t remember buying this, but I’m almost certain it was in my first shipment from the Wall Street Journal wine club. That means it cost approximately negative two dollars after introductory offers…so my expectations were dialed down low. The Black Stump is a blend…
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How to taste great wine (for less than $5000)
There’s a winery in Napa that now has a $5000 per person tasting fee, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in February 2025. The culprit is Ghost Horse, the same attention-hungry winemaker that is preparing to release a $25,000 bottle of Cabernet. I’m all for people doing whatever they want with their money. But I think…
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Review: Domaine Philippe et Vincent Jaboulet Viognier (2022)
Viognier? More like, “Viogn-yay!” Today we’re reviewing a fruit-packed, exquisitely floral Viognier from veteran Rhône winemaker Philippe Jaboulet (and son). The Jaboulets sold their renowned family business Domaine Paul Jaboulet Aîné in 2006, retained a few small plots, and have since started a new life as independent winemakers. So this is no trend-chasing, clumsily made…
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Under $12 Review: ALDI’s California Heritage Pinot Grigio
Our wine review of the day is…ta-da! A $5 Pinot Grigio from ALDI. Wait, wait–I can explain: I bought this wine to put in my Italian sausage and kale pasta. But then I remembered that drinking bad wine helps you appreciate the good ones more. So I put on a brave face, twisted that screw…