Toast Wine Talk

10/25/2022

You haven’t seen the last of many of the State Fair’s Blue Ribbon Wines! Order a customizable mixed case at Sommly.com and enjoy them at your house! .wine with .repost
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From now until 12/10, Sommly will be offering the State Fair of Texas’ Blue Ribbon wines for sale. These award winning Texas wines were selected by for their quality and value. Read the full story and buy Blue Ribbon wines via the link in bio!

10/25/2021

So happy to celebrate my friend Rob Barney’s successes with his wine brand Stressed Vines. Why are they stressed? Because stressed vines make better wine! Rob’s fabulous winemaker Erica Stancliff keeps making great wines under this label including the new 2018 Vintner’s Select Reserve Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. Whoa! Rob works hard securing restaurant placements around Dallas, so look for it at your favorite restaurants including Biernat’s, Boulevardier, Georgie, Homewood, Knife, Nick & Sam’s, Verona’s and many more. Private tastings available locally by appointment! Happy to have helped with tasting notes and label “romance copy” and to have tasted many great wines with Rob and the rest of my tasting group! 🍷What a party at Suze!! Congrats Rob!

08/29/2021

National red wine day, you say?

never disappoints!

07/21/2021

Texas wine nerd on location in the Finger Lakes! Zweigelt harvested in October and only 12% abv. Whole berry fermentation. Tasty!

01/10/2021

The government has announced new regulations for wine sizes, and now there will be more options on grocery store shelves.

01/05/2021

If you are in the US and you love French wine, go shopping right now.
-W Blake Gray

The new year begins where we were before Covid – with a wine industry facing economic turbulence. Read the latest wine news & features on wine-searcher

12/17/2020

Still shopping? There are some great ideas here! 🎁
Cheers! 🥂

Amid the pandemic, we’re all shopping smarter, making lists instead of combing store aisles for inspiration. The Dallas Morning News Wine Panel’s gift...

09/28/2020

Great Virtual Somm Camp with ! Loved the blind tasting format and enthusiastic discussion of Texas wine with representatives from and . Now I have 5 open bottles of wine. 😳🤪🤣🍷

09/18/2020

It’s International Grenache Day, and I’m celebrating with my favorite Grenache of all time. I think this is the best Grenache ever made, in fact.

The Sadie Family’s 2016 Soldaat from South Africa. Old vines that are unirrigated and ungrafted. Natural winemaking techniques. 🍷Rhe tech sheer says its aging potential is 18 years, so maybe I’ll save my last bottle a bit longer!

The South Africa wine industry has had a heck of a time lately. Their whole industry was shut down for months. There was NO alcohol being sold in the entire country, and no exports were allowed either. 😳

Support South African wineries as they try to get back on their feet!

has several great choices from as well as another of my go-to choices (that’s more affordable), 🌺🌸🌼 by

PS - here’s how you deal with a wax top. Go right through it! No problem.

09/03/2020

Everyone should be free to drink what they like! But if I see you in the store with this giant stick of butter in your cart... 😬😂😳

The box looks like a stick of butter.

08/23/2020

Do you think an alcoholic beverage with an ingredient label is healthier than wine? Do you want to know what additives your wine has in it? The residual sugar or type of oak used?

There's a growing interest in transparency in wine labeling. I listened as winemaker Adam Lee and journalist W. Blake Gray discussed this issue recently, and it's a fascinating debate.

My take: yes, the information can be complicated, but so was high fructose corn syrup the first time we heard about it. Provide the information, and let the consumer decide to use it or not.

Expect to read more about this in the years to come.

Many brands have a lot to boast about when it comes to wine production, their sustainability practices and more. So why aren't these facts on wine labels?

08/22/2020

My heart goes out to those in the path of the fires in California.
🙏❤️🙏
I first learned to love wine by visiting California wine country and by drinking fine California wines.
🍷❤️🍷
Tonight I selected this 10 year old Pinot Noir from Radio-coteau, and its aroma has me all up in my feelings. It roughly translates to “word of mouth” or “broadcasting from the hillside” more specifically. I love this producer, and I love it when Pinot Noir ages like this. I’m swooning.
👃🏻❤️👃🏻
Hold strong California.