Wall Street Journal Critic Shocked, Shocked by Dallas' Taste in Wine.

• A number of variations of the purses are also available in the markets around the world. Some of the popular variations of purses include totes, pocketbooks, security bags and coin purses.

• A few of you could have viewed my post yesterday concerning the sale of Lazy Creek Vineyards from the Anderson Valley of Mendocino County. This singular producer was purchased by Ferrari-Carano above the summer time, and I expressed concern that the idiosyncratic character of Lazy Creek wouldn't be in a position to withstand the a lot more glitzy persona

• I think everyone has missed a major factor here - Dallas is a financial services and oil and gas business town. That means lot of expense account dinners. When I take someone out on an expense account I'll order Silver Oak or Cakebread or something similarly expensive. I don't buy that price point to serve at home, but senior execs probably due because it's what they know of from expense account dinners. If Two Buck Chuck was all I could afford I wouldn't buy wine at all. There's no complexity to the flavor so you might as well just pour a stiff cocktail to get your alcohol.

• For those of you not in the media biz, there's a good reason why Lettie ("don't call me Leticia") is no longer at Food and Wine, and is a stringer, not the critic, for WSJ. That would include the fact that WSJ is not exactly a venue for such critiques. You could probably cull that from her use of this retail venue, no matter how amusing the manager's assessment OF FRISCO (aka Yonkers South), that she was merely passing by and so is her review. Shocking, I tell ya.

• Dallas isn't up-to-the-minute with New York or San Francisco, but I think she's mistaking Friscans for Dallasites. People who equate "fine dining" with "steakhouse" will probably gravitate toward big cabs. If you go to the Hummer-driving, mega-church nouveau exurbs of any big city, including New York, you'll probably find similar tendencies. The wine lists at most well-regarded Dallas restaurants (i.e York Street, Nonna, Suze, Hibiscus, Local, Bijou etc.) and the selections at Central Market, Whole Foods, Sigel's Greenville, Pogo's and other big wine retailers are not overly focused on Cabernet and Chardonnay. Stephen Pyles and Fearing's might be exceptions, but those are status-y joints. I would say that the tendency toward fruit bomb reds, has been increasing steadily since the 80's -- at least partially due to the influence of Robert Parker. Most of the Australian and South American reds that have become popular in the past 15 years are that syrupy, low-acid style he favors.

• Folks....there are plenty of very good retail and on-site locations with excellent selections of non-'labely' wines. Pogo's has been offering wines like this for over 15 years. You can also try Grailey's, La Cave Warehouse, Stoney's Bottle Bargins or Sacred Cellars. For on site enjoyment, try Vino 100, Veritas Wine Room, Bodega Bar, Cork Wine Bar, CRU, Salum or Into the Glass. All of these places prefer to showcase smaller producers and shy away from too many well know brands, so as to offer a reason for you to visit. It's a shame that Lola, A Restaurant closed last year!! Hopefully, it will re-open someday......great place.

• I always thought Dallas formed because of he intersection of two major railroads and the proximty of a fort nearby. I didn't know that John Neely Bryan staked a "Bed, Bath and Be Yonder"

• Do we have to be cool and trendy with everything(here cool and trendy is being artsy fartsy about choosing small unknown wines). Its alcohol. It should be illegal in the first place.

• I lived in Northern California for years before moving here in 20006. We never, ever drank Silver Oak or Caymus or Cakebread or Grgich Hills or anything "labely" or "overpriced". It was unheard of. The wine auctions in Napa and Sonoma pretty much went broke because all anyone ever wanted to drink was Two Buck Chuck or something unpretentious, organic and harvested by people with at least one disability. If someone dared serve a Screaming Eagle or Opus One, you were obligated by some great moral authority to walk away from the table. I was stunned...stunned, I tell you, to find such nice wines here in Dallas. I wonder where they come from.

• great post jon. "if we can't have anything "dallas" we could cry about it...or we could get the best that paris london and tokyo have to offer." the problem with this is, who are the people deciding what it is that should be imported and more importantly, what are they comparing it to, since there isn't a great local "culture" for the imports to be compared to. the same "retail" people that you mention? and there is somewhat of a tex mex culture I think, and gulf coast...they may not be "native" to dallas, but they have a definite influence, people are familiar with these things enough to use them to frame "cultural imports"..

• Dallas' celebrity "elite" and their coattail- chasing sycophants will always focus on brand labels and the perceptions of their wannabe peers. How else could Uptown have been created and be able to thrive while downtown stagnates? That's another issue however... I won't claim to have visited all the chic restaurants in town recently, although I have lived here for 30 years and have been to many of them during that time. Sophistication in wine lists is not Dallas' strongest suit, but there are pockets of originality. The cliche that "everything is bigger in Texas" still holds true, somewhat unfortunately - big Cabs and Chardonnays are more manly than Merlot or Pinot Noir.

• Umm... yeah. Plenty of reason for Dallas to be here, yet you didn't name one. Must be the scenic beauty.

• @jonfromtjs The "Dallas creation story" is a myth. It's part of the mid century marketing of the city. There was always plenty of reason for Dallas to be here.

• The Malbec was a good call, but I get mine at Sam's. Oh my.

• There will always be a market, and a large one, for good solid Cabs and Chardonnays, especially in Texas. Even as tastes become more varied along with wine menus and selections, those are solid go to wines, especially for steak and seafood. Names like Caymus, Silver Oak and Cakebread became recognizable because they have traditionally offered good quality, solid examples of their varietals. Even if better examples can be had for less, you can't deny the consumer appeal of an established name.

• its dallas. clothes, cars, wines, bridges...we are as a whole a label conscious city. not only does it not surprise me, it surprises me that it surprises people anymore. it all goes back to the origins of dallas. there is no reason for dallas to exist. no natural resources, no bay or harbor... dallas exists only because of the effort put forth by its frontiersman retailer founders. we are the only city in america for whom retail is our original backbone. none of that retail came from here. it was imported from the very beginning. in boston people love lobster bakes and striped bass. in SF they love napa wines and local produce. because for generations the people have lived off of and enjoyed those things. but dallas doesn't have anything from here. we never have! we instead want the best of what everyone ELSE has. that bridge, that art scene, that club and that car and that wine. if we can't have anything "dallas" we could cry about it...or we could get the best that paris london and tokyo have to offer. this can be great. but it can also turn into label/brand whoring and sadly we have lots of that here. i'm not saying any of this condescendingly...i'm a fishmonger in a landlocked town. its just dallas.

• Someone needs to tell the Wall Street Journal that a chain liquor store in an exurb is not a good assessment of a major city.

• its getting better, but still a long way off.

• The grape is Ugni BLANC - unless she was looking for a wine made of myrtle shrubs.

• I'm not really a big wine guy, but those are the people who are spending money on wine in Dallas and I don't think they're looking $9 bottles made from "unfashionable grapes".

• Luniz, I've eaten out every night since I moved here, but the rigors of reviewing mean I've had to visit a few places multiple times. I'd guess I've eaten at five or six different places in the Uptown area. Have you had good wine experiences there?

• to answer you questions at the end, I have another question for you. How much have you gone out in uptown?

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