Hydration

For those not familiar with the incredible variety of weather here in North Texas, allow me to illuminate.

Winter: This lasts from about Thanksgiving to about March. It can be anywhere from 20 to 90 degrees during the day. And about the same at night. Mild precip can be expected, meaning sleet, snow, hail, ice, rain, chickens, cows or pigs could fall in amounts from 1 inch to 1 foot an hour.

Spring: On even years this is March 13th. On odd years there is no Spring.

Fall: LOL, right, we don't do Fall.

Summer: From March through November, sometimes December, maybe even February. Its a stable season; 90-100 something during the day, 80 at night, humid, 20% of rain.

Thank goodness for the genius who invented Daylight Savings Time, this affords us the opportunity to, even at 11pm, step outside and feel like we are wearing a nice moist, warm, wool body-blanket.

During the summer months, its important to stay hydrated, so we are happy about this new hydration station.


Winetastic
4140 Lemmon Ave
Dallas, TX 75219
(214) 252-9494

I wandered in here a while back and liked the format. Half retail and half wine bar. The retail section, while not extensive, is well-selected and moderately priced. Just don't buy your Clicquot here, its about $15 over market. The wine bar half, is approachable. I really got into the 60+ wines by the glass, an very good way to try something unfamiliar without risking $20-60.

The guy who owns it must be pretty smart, he just graduated from MIT with an MBA, he is 26. I think he chose the perfect location in the densely populated Oaklawn neighborhood; good street visibility, lots of walk-by traffic and plenty of convenient underground parking.

A couple of times a month they have wine tastings. A group of friends and I tried their Rose tasting. At $14 you just couldn't pass it up, this is far cry from the $50-90 tastings at other venues.

Five almost full glasses of Roses later, we were mixed on the Rose. Some of us really liked the lighter, crisper flavors for the hot summer months, while some others were ambivalent, still preferring the heavy reds with their delicious complexity and prominent body. We were all very surprised at how dry these wine were, I guess the pink color reminds us of the dreaded White Zinfandel, but there was no sweetness at all to the Rose.

The winner for me in the Rose category was this one:

Guigal Tavel 2004 - France - $21
Big, big fruit on this one, heavy Strawberry influence with some subtle herby notes. Clean and crisp with lingering body. Definitely an addition to the collection, you know, in the name of hydration.

Winetastic
Dallas