DFW: Terminal A, McPherson Viognier

When in Dallas...

2010 McPherson Viognier
Lubbock, Texas
1840 cases produced
13.8%

Normally, when i get stuck at Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) airport, I have time to get all the way over to the really snazzy new international Terminal D. But not this night. After wandering the halls of the airport lazily, I had not left enough time to do more than grab a drink and go. Well, necessity is the mother of… as they say, and I learned something new this year. When you get stuck in Terminal A at DFW, be sure to drop by the Houston-based restaurant bar, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen.

Frankly, I wish I hadn’t eaten my neatly packed lunch on the plane—the red-blooded American food at the tables looked perfect in every way. You see, my pilot landed us two hours early, and I had some real-time to kill prior to getting lost between terminals. Feeling like a jaunt to Terminal D was just not in the cards, I began looking for other solution. Eventually I found this hidden-away, peculiar basement restaurant with what looks to be the very nicest steak I’ve ever seen in an airport. The fella next to me who was traveling to Albuquerque for work assured me the spicy crawfish étouffée is definitely the way to go. But if you order here, what should you order with it? Well, have I got news for you…buy local!

McPherson Viognier at Pappadeaux

The 2010 McPherson Viognier from Lubbock, Texas, sang out to me from this wine menu laden with the usual dullard—St. Supery, Mezzacorona, and Kendall Jackson. Texas vintners make a real effort, and their Viogniers have real potential. Like Virginia’s Horton Viognier—there are grapes that grow outside of the Rhône and Napa that can still make quite a delicious wine.

I like what the label has to say, “Perhaps it’s the chard-ification of America that Viognier hasn’t caught on, or perhaps because no one can pronounce ‘V-N-A,’ but whatever it is, no one hates a good Viognier once they try it. i like what the makers of this wine say, “perhaps it’s a chardon-istic conspiracy.”

At any rate, who knew that in Lubbock you could order local wine and be joyfully surprised? Joyfully? Pleasantly surprised, maybe; however, joyfully surprised is a great thing to find in local wine outside of the CA, OR, and WA state wines in America.

Well, the folks who work here are really nice and generous with the pours, the airport food terrific, and the Texas whites mouth-watering, leaving some serious legs in the glass, but not overly potent. At only 13.8% alcohol, it’s a nice, calm, non-competitive white, but hidden on a list of big name whites that are made by the truck load. And shocker of shockers, this bottle is one of only 1840 cases!

It’s a great treat if you have a half an hour for a mid-continent break in your flights. After a thousand or more miles, it provides a fully-realized respite in a long-stemmed glass. Fragrant, with the pronounced honeysuckle that this grape is known for. And best of all, it is ready, ready, ready to drink now, alright.

You can forgive the bartendrix for thinking it is a “sweet” wine, as I was advised. Once you smell it and see the sticky wine in the glass coating the silicon, you realize just how special Viognier is. It’s completely dry, and yet she is selling it as a sweet wine. so, here’s the great news: if you like sweet wine, you can class up your palette by learning about a new wine, falling immediately in love with it, and not skipping a beat, knowing you now have great taste that fine wine lovers can appreciate. Let those wine snobs know that you love fine Viognier, and they might just pull out one from their cellar to treat you to.

While you are waiting for the snobs to pull out a white wine surprise, and next time you are stuck in Terminal A, come to the cellar here at gate 24 and sup on an $8 dollar glass of honeysuckle pleasure. They’re still busy boarding group 1, probably. Sit a spell and absorb the best airport experience in the mid-section of this big country of ours.