Chardonnay

Fun in the Sun with Food and Wine: Brenner's Wine Fest

Brenner's on the Bayou is definitely one of Houston's best-kept secrets. Set against a hillside off Memorial Drive at Westcott, the gem of a restaurant directly overlooks the bayou, with extensive grounds that boast trickling water features, lushly rolling hills, a gazebo and winding walkways. It's ... More >>

So Delicious, a Caveman Could Eat It

Paleo-friendly restaurant menus abound in Houston.

Jordan, a California Chardonnay with Restraint

A few years ago, a holiday weekend drive to Palm Springs from my native San Diego delivered me at the doorstep of Chardonnay Hills, an upscale homeowners association in Temecula. In this day and age, it's not surprising that a community would name itself after a grape. After all, ampelonyms (that's ... More >>

Go West, Young Man

The top 10 restaurants in Westchase.

Champagne Cliffs Notes: The Best Bubblies to Buy for New Year's Eve

The weather outside was frightful when I rolled up to the mothership Spec's on Smith Street one afternoon last week. But it wasn't half as scary as the demolition derby that was unfolding in the parking lot there, between the old school Caddys, the C-Class Benzes, and the obligatory and ubiquitous ... More >>

Cat Piss, Horse Sweat, Wet Dog, Barnyard (Unusual Wine Descriptors)

One of the pet peeves at our house is gooseberries. No, not the berries themselves. But the people who use the descriptor gooseberry when writing a tasting note. As one wine blogger put it, "New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc's classic description is smelling like cats' pee on a gooseberry bush. If you g ... More >>

A Taste of Texas Wines at Sullivan's

Last week, Sullivan's Steakhouse played host to Messina Hof founders Paul and Merrill Bonarrigo for a wine dinner showcasing the Texas-based winery's award-winning wines. I was invited to attend, not only to reacquaint myself with the Messina Hof's wines, but also to sample the specialty menu create ... More >>

A California Chardonnay without Sin

I just love that the good folks over at the Chamisal winery in the Central Coast of California call their entry-level Chardonnay "stainless." To anyone familiar with the science and art of winemaking, the term "stainless" denotes a commonly employed technique and associated style of vinification. B ... More >>

More Than Just Nolan Ryan

5 food-related reasons to drive to Alvin.

Wine Lost and Found in Translation with Sean Beck

"The sommelier is there to 'translate' the wine" for the patron, says sommelier Sean Beck. Beck runs one of the city's most respected wine programs at Backstreet Café. "You're there to make the guests feel confident about their choice" of wine, he explains. In a city like petrochemical-based Houst ... More >>

Have A Drink On Us: AC/DC Sells Wine Now, and We Had a Tasting

Shout-out to the oenophiles out there, there is a new kid on the wine block these days, with the introduction of two varieties of vino geared towards fans of classic-rock band AC/DC. Now, I know what you are saying: Since their music goes so well with the hard stuff, shouldn't AC/DC be making their ... More >>

Low-Alcohol Vermentino from California Makes Me Happy

The winemakers behind Uvaggio Vermentino from Lodi have a theory. "If we grow the right grape in the right place," they write on their website, "we can manage to get by with our respective degrees in psychology and geography. (If one of us gets lost then other can figure out why.) However, when you ... More >>

1981 and Now

The Top 12 Texas Junk Foods.

Like That Wine? Try This One: A Guide to Texas Wine Varietals

In last week's cover story, we discussed the fact that Texas vineyards still stubbornly grow varietals that aren't suited to the Texan weather or soil -- well-known grapes such as Merlot, Cabernet and Chardonnay. But they're doing it for a reason: Too many wine drinkers don't want to stray from the ... More >>

Texas Wines: Behind the Cellar Door

Not all the Texas wine you buy is made from grapes grown in our state. In fact, most of it isn’t.

Wine of the Week: Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir (Willamette)

Of all the wine-growing regions in the U.S., none seems to make more sense to me than the Willamette Valley, Oregon (although the Finger Lakes in New York state comes in at a close second). When rich white dudes were inspired to plant French varieties in Napa like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Ch ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Who Needs Another Merlot When You Have Cerasuolo di Vittoria?

Did the world really need another Merlot and Chardonnay in 1995? Evidently, the Planeta family thought so, and when the younger generation of this Sicilian clan launched the eponymous winery in the mid-1990s, they delivered bold, oaky, concentrated, and highly alcoholic Chardonnay, Merlot, and Syrah ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Chardonnay

Photo by Tracie P.Although Chardonnay has become synonymous with "white wine" in North America, its true homeland is the Côte de Beaune in Burgundy, France, where it is grown and raised in some of its most celebrated expressions.​Chardonnay has been on our minds. Last week, our colleague Chr ... More >>

Odd Pair: Mile-High Wine

Photos by Jeremy Parzen.​"What are my white wine choices?" I asked the other day after boarding one of the roughly 24 Southwest Airlines flights that I will take this year, as I commute monthly to work with one of my clients in California. "Chardonnay," answered the steward. "Is there more t ... More >>

Ingredient of the Week: Chardonnay

Valentine's Day came and went. You cooked some fancy meal with your significant other, uncorked a bottle of wine, and then after dinner, fed each other bon bons by the fire. Okay, realistically, there was no fire because Houston just hasn't stayed cold this winter. But all the other parts really ... More >>

Bacchus Boasts an Assumption-Challenging Wine List

Chuck Cook Photography​Have you ever told a friend, "I simply have to come see you sometime!" and then ended up saying that every time you ran into each other? And then, by the time you're ready, or he's ready, something has changed? Well, while "wine badass" Marc Borel was at Bacchus, I kep ... More >>

10 Hilarious Old Commercials for Terrible Wines, Mostly Aimed at Men Wanting Sex with Drunk Women

By Italian or French standards, Americans still have a lot to learn about wine. But my oh my, how far we've come in the past 30 years. It's hard to fathom how little we must have known about the fruits of the vine if the following ten shockingly terrible ads for abysmally awful wines are any indicat ... More >>

Odd Pair: What Wine to Pair with Hospital Food?

Photos by Jeremy Parzen.When you're admitted to the hospital to have a baby, you're taken off solid foods. As soon as the baby is born, they bring you a meal to regain your strength. In our case, it was hospital cafeteria meatloaf.​Color me pink! Tracie P and I had a baby on Monday: Georgia P ... More >>

Wine of the Week: An Argentine Chardonnay that Surprised Me

Photo by Jeremy Parzen.Argentina isn't what I generally reach for when I go wine shopping, but I was pleasantly surprised when my Spec's salesperson turned me on to this Patagonia Chardonnay.​Most of the wine that comes from South America tends to be made in the California style: big flavor, b ... More >>

Odd Pair: Ice Cubes and Chardonnay (Water and Wine)

Back in the 1990s, when a new awareness of fine wine began to emerge in the U.S., the combination of "ice cubes in your Chardonnay" became a sort of litmus test, a line in the sand dividing those who knew and appreciated fine wine and those who didn't. Even today, when we're invited for over for d ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Domaine du Salvard 2010 Cheverny

Photos by Jeremy ParzenThe 2010 Cheverny by Domaine du Salvard from the Loire Valley, France, is like the quiet, shy kid in the back of the class, with his nose in a book. But when he's called on, he's brilliant.​There is SO much wine in the aisles of Houston's wine shops these days. From Spec ... More >>

Odd Pair: Asparagus and Wine

Today we think of asparagus as one of the standard vegetable side dishes in the contemporary canon of American gastronomy. But in another era, asparagus was considered one of the world's greatest delicacies: The insatiable King Louis XIV built greenhouses so that he could eat asparagus all year rou ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Photo via @SanCrittenden.Houston wine blogger Sandra Crittenden.​Wine Thoughts: One of the things that we love about Sandra Crittenden's blog Wine Thoughts is how she seamlessly alternates between a big, boisterous Chilean red that she picked up at the Tasting Room for "approximately $100," an ... More >>

Top 12 Wines Under $15 for the Holidays

A $10 sparkling wine for the holidays: Toso is one of our top picks.​Last night, Whole Foods Market introduced its Top 10 wines for the holidays -- except that this year, like the days of Christmas, there are actually 12. Historically, some of the recommended wines have been held up at custom ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Another Oaky Buttery Chardonnay

Photo by Jeremy Parzen.The marketing campaign by Educated Guess wines is one of the most successful in recent history.​Yesterday, after arriving at the Newark, NJ airport from Milan, Italy (where I admired a statue of Leonardo da Vinci across from the famous Scala opera house), I headed straig ... More >>

Wine of the Week: $15 Is the New $10

​"What's your favorite wine for under $10?" If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me that question, I'd probably have about $15. When it comes to wine pricing, you'll often hear wine trade folks talk about "price points," in other words, a "maximum" price that allows us to categorize ... More >>

Valentino's All-You-Can-Eat Summer Sashimi Event

Photos by Mai PhamAhi tuna sashimi with spicy aoili ​If you weren't there, you missed out. More than 100 people attended Valentino's all-you-can-eat Summer Sashimi event last Thursday night, an extravaganza that included sashimi, more sashimi, and a bottomless selection of four wines -- a Ries ... More >>

Wine of the Week: "Oaky May Be Bad, but Oak Is Good."

​If you're anywhere between 21 and 51 years of age (I'll be 44 next month), you were brought up with the notion that oak flavors were a sign of a fine wine. Back in the 1970s, when huge investment in the Californian wine industry began to take shape, the dudes in charge -- think Gallo and Mo ... More >>

Odd Pair: King Ranch Chicken and an "Oxidative" Wine from Jura

​University of Texas alum and a Solomon among wine writers, my friend Eric Asimov likes to tease me about some of my favorite pairings with Texan cuisine, like "oxidative" wines from Jura, France, with my mother-in-law's Chex Mix. (An oxidative wine is a wine that was made by purposely exposin ... More >>

Tasting Spring Branch

St. Arnold's and a slider from Avalon Diner.​Nothing makes a late Sunday afternoon like tasty food, cold beer and a sense of community. This is what I found at the Memorial Assistance Ministries' Taste of Spring Branch food tasting event this weekend. After a minor snafu involving a tree and ... More >>

Wine(s) of the Week: Duel Napa Valley Chardonnay

​I had a couple bottles of Chardonnay sent to me from different wineries, and noticed they were both within a year's vintage of one another, in the same price range, and both from the Napa Valley. So, why not do a Wine of the Week, "Food Fight" style? It was on like Donkey Kong, only a little ... More >>

Tapas on the Trails: A Valentine’s Evening at the Arboretum

Your Holiday Party Won't Break the Bank with $2.99 Wines From Whole Foods Market

Three Wishes, available exclusively at Whole Foods for $2.99 a bottle or $33 for a dozen. ​Save your hard-earned cash for presents by stocking your holiday party with Three Wishes wines, available exclusively at Whole Foods Market for $2.99 a bottle. At this point, some of you are no doubt s ... More >>

Odd Pair: Pineapple Upside Down Cake & Chardonnay-Viognier

​Just shy of December, I have already received my first Christmas gift: a lovely bottle of 2007 "Duet" Chardonnay-Viognier by Louis Latour. It is an elegant-looking bottle that promises to be crisp and refreshing, and it does not disappoint. The Chardonnay gives the beverage a sharpness that i ... More >>

Odd Pair: Sweet Potatoes & Chardonnay

​If you're like me, then you've been "practicing" your Thanksgiving recipes a little early this year. At least that's the reason you give when people ask why you're making stuffing and sweet potatoes in the beginning of November. The upside (besides getting to eat decadent food all month) is ... More >>

Wine of the Week: 2009 Cupcake Chardonnay

​Since I'm too old to trick-or-treat, I thought a bottle of California Central Coast Cupcake Chardonnay (sent to me by Underdog Wine Merchant) would satisfy my need for a treat this Halloween. Perhaps it's a mental trick, coming from a confectionary-named vineyard, but it is an exceptionally s ... More >>

House of the Rising Sun

The stars align at Scott Tycer's Aries

Uncorking a Bargain

A champagne buyer's guide