Cheers to This

Innovative wine club pours into Texas with America's best hard-to-find wines

Got an oenophile friend, or perhaps you're one yourself? Then pop the cork for this news: Winestyr has expanded to Texas.

Unlike all other wine sites, Winestyr works directly with small wineries and cuts out traditional distributors and retailers. By cutting out the middlemen, Winestyr provides a curated offering of wines from over 100 of America's best small producers, and delivers them to members with preferred pricing and $0 shipping. The founders have personally tasted each and every wine they sell, delivering you the best selection of small-production wines possible and making them accessible to you in a whole new way.

Exclusive tastes
Winestyr features more than 100 of the most unique and celebrated domestic wine producers, such as Scribe Winery, Rossi-Wallace, Buoncristiani Family Winery, Vineyard 36, Domaine de le Côte, Matthiasson, Channing Daughters, Smith Story Wine Cellars, Rôtie Cellars, Teutonic Wine Company, Sojourn Cellars, The Wonderland Project, and more. Have you ever heard of Evening Land Vineyards, Rotie Cellars, or Solminer Wine Co.? Probably not, but they've all received high accolades and you can now access their wines — and hundreds more — through Winestyr.

Join the club
You can purchase wine by the bottle from Winestyr, but the best way to indulge is by joining the wine club. The curated shipments — all reds, all whites, or mixed — give you access to a wide variety of small-production wineries; 24/7 access to expert wine advisors; the ability to repurchase your favorite wines from your shipment; $0 shipping on wine purchases; and exclusive access to special wines, discounts, and secret sales.

Gifting time
It's also the ideal time of year to think about gift-giving, whether that means a membership or box of handpicked wines. Winestyr's gift collections include luxurious packaging and the option to include a personalized gift note. You can choose from options such as "The Classy Thank You," "The Celebratory Duo," "The Napa Cab Trio," and more.

Founded with passion
Co-founders and childhood friends Bob Wilson, Scott Washburn, and John Wilson started Winestyr in Chicago in 2011 to create an online wine-buying experience that lived up to their standards of curation, transparency, and authenticity.

VP of wine and certified sommelier Will Whelan joined the Chicago-based Winestyr with one goal in mind: connect the best winemakers in the country directly with engaged and passionate wine drinkers. Whelan has traveled coast to coast, gaining wide-ranging experience as a cellar rat, retail shop buyer, sommelier, wine director, and distributor sales rep.

The result is better wine for you, at a great value, while also supporting America's small wineries.

Just for you
CultureMap readers get an extra perk: Join a Winestyr wine club and get $25 off your first shipment when you use promo code CULTUREMAP at checkout.

Winestyr showcases the country's best small-production and hard-to-find domestic wines and producers.

Photo courtesy of Winestyr

Winestyr showcases the country's best small-production and hard-to-find domestic wines and producers.

Your Expert Guide

Oak Cliff: The underestimated historic and culturally rich 'hood

Photo courtesy of Briggs Freeman

Kay Wood

There are so many great places to live in Dallas that it helps to have an expert on your side. The Neighborhood Guide presented by Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty gives you insider access from the agents who live and work there, providing in-the-know info about your possible new community.

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Bishop Arts is a huge attraction, but Realtor Kay Wood wants people to know that Oak Cliff is a lot more than just Bishop Arts.

"Oak Cliff has a really rich and complex history," the Briggs Freeman agent says. "I think it's one of the most underestimated neighborhoods in Dallas."

Wood has lived in Oak Cliff with her high school sweetheart-husband since 2008, but she's been helping people buy and sell homes there for the past 15 years, currently with her business partner Brian Davis.

"The neighborhoods here are close to everything but still relatively affordable compared to other areas of DFW," she says. "I love all the historic homes with their architectural interest and variety, the strong sense of community engagement, and how there's so much to explore. Whether you're looking for the best new restaurant, the most authentic taco, film festivals, the zoo, the best public high school in Texas, parks, nature preserves — I could go on all day!"

Wood offered up a few of her personal favorites about life in "the Cliff." Here's her guide to the area:

Where to eat & drink
The list is long: Nova ("you have to get the hummus," Wood says), Encina (pro tip: don't skip the blue cornbread), Cibo Divino for pizza and wine on the patio, coffee from Peaberry ("my husband swears their Vietnamese coffee is the best in town"), oysters at Boulevardier, the Perfect Picnic at Eno's Pizza Tavern, tio's elotes next to El Si Hay, the pistachio ice cream at Joy Macarons, and the spicy lobster ramen at Ten Ramen.

Wood advises picking up a great bottle of wine from Neighborhood Cellars and some steaks from Cooper's Meat Market. And, of course, there are tons of taco options in the neighborhood: "We can't get enough of Maskaras, Trompo, and Taco y Vino," she says.

Where to play
Marvel at the best skyline views in town while playing a round at Stevens Park Golf Course, take a walk through Twelve Hills Nature Preserve, bike along the Trinity River, or play disc golf at Founders Park.

The Kessler Theater is "such a great and intimate venue" for concerts, while the Texas Theater adds a touch of history to movie-watching. Escape to The Wild Detectives for books, music, and poetry, or head to the Dallas Zoo for a wild day out — "our whole family loves to feed the giraffes," Wood says.

What to see
Oak Cliff is home to the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial at Kiest Park and the La Reunion Monument at Stevens Park Golf Course that honors some of Dallas' earliest settlers.

On Jefferson Boulevard, you can pop into the Oak Cliff Cultural Center for regular art shows, and "my daughters love to walk down the street and look at all the quinceañera dresses in the shop windows," she says.

Where to live
A few years ago, Wood helped her buyers purchase 626 Rainbow Dr., a rare, two-acre midcentury modern estate that's wrapped on three sides by a babbling creek.

"When you're there, it's really hard to believe you're less than four miles from downtown Dallas," she says. The buyers hired local architect Eddie Maestri to update some aspects of the house while carefully preserving its midcentury style. There was an original barn that had been previously converted to a studio, but the buyers reinvented it as a guest house and added a pool and outdoor kitchen.

"It's hard to say what a 'typical' Oak Cliff house would be, because we have some of the very best examples of almost every architectural style in town," Wood says.

"In Winnetka Heights, you'll find Craftsman architecture (four squares, bungalows, Sears catalog, etc). Kessler Park has Tudors and Colonials and Texas eclectics from notable local architects like Charles Dilbeck and David R Williams. Stevens Park has all of these, as well as Spanish Revival and Dutch colonials. Wynnewood, North Kiestwood, and Wynnewood Hills have some of the best midcentury moderns in Dallas, as well as wonderful ranches. East Kessler has cutting-edge contemporaries that take advantage of the rare-to-DFW hilly terrain. You could teach a pretty comprehensive architectural history of Dallas without ever leaving Oak Cliff."

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Kay Wood lives, works, and plays in Oak Cliff. For more information on buying and selling a home in the area, click here, email kwood@briggsfreeman.com, or call 214-908-5442.