One of the best parts of this business is finding a wine that turns out to be something that you can happily drink for the rest of your life. Which is exactly what the Casamatta ($13, purchased, available at Central Market) turned out to be.

How well made is this wine? The Wine Magazines and I agree that it’s a terrific wine at a terrific price. And how often does that happen?

The Casamatta comes from a leading Tuscan producer, Bibi Graetz, who makes traditional Italian wines using some of the best New World methods. That combination produces a bottle that reflects the qualities that are the strength of Italian wine, like low alcohol and balanced acidity, but does so in a consistent, dependable manner that the hit or miss nature of too much Italian winemaking often can’t do.

The Casamatta is made with sangiovese, so look for some sour cherry fruit, a firm acid backbone, and lots more finish than a $13 wine should have. It’s almost embarrassing how much more interesting this wine is than similary-priced Chiantis from big-name wineries. Highly recommended. Serve this with everything from spaghetti and meatballs to roast chicken to cheese and olives.

Last week the Observer‘s Robert Wilonsky gave us the scoop that low-cost, high-fashion store H&M may be announcing plans to open a Dallas store — possibly even early this week. I’m a huge H&M fan, and have always wondered why Dallas, with its reputation for trendy fashion retailers, hadn’t yet lured the international company.

In fact, I’m working on a story that included interviews with two commercial real estate experts on this very topic. What they both told me is that H&M’s arrival in Dallas is only a matter of time. After the jump, find out more on why it’s taken so long, and what H&M is looking for in terms of real estate. (more…)

This week’s Music Monday features Trey Johnson, the subject of an Advocate Q&A last year. Johnson’s new album “Where the East Ends” contains an eclectic musical mix featuring band members James Driscoll, Rich Martin and Don Cento, plus appearances from a number of their contemporaries. Two faves,  “Salt of the Earth and “Rain”, are on the podcast; you can hear the rest if the album here.

Celebrated chef Dean Fearing is known for his culinary art, but he’s got a little side project — it’s The Barbwires, known for their country-rock stylings. The Barbwires’ latest album is Bliss and Blisters, which has been called sophisticated … with echoes of Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Beatles, and the Grateful Dead.

LISTEN HERE: 9.7 Music Monday

Whether people like to admit it or not, some of the most routine social interactions can be painfully awkward – especially when you chop it up and analyze it. That’s what this quirky comic strip does, exploring four of the most common scenarios: 1) Brief encounters with kind-of friends. 2) Forced proximity 3) The Trap 4) Well-intentioned social terrorism – OK that one’s kind of over-the-top.

Construction started recently on David Uygur’s new restaurant in the Bishop Arts District. Uygur was the chef at Lola for eight years, and the new restaurant, Lucia, is the first venture for him and his wife, Jennifer.

“He’s always wanted to have his own restaurant,” says Jennifer Uygur, who manages the wine department at Central Market. “It’s going to be somewhere we’d want to eat.”

The Uygurs travel frequently to Italy, and Lucia will specialize in Italian comfort food — handmade gnocchi, pasta and bread. David Uygur taught himself how to cure salumi, so charcuterie will be a focus of the menu. It will have a “small but interesting” wine list.

It’s “unfussy Italian food driven by someone who loves food,” Jennifer Uyguyr says.

Lucia will have about 40 seats, so it’s “not a place to see and be seen,” she says. “We want it to feel like you are coming coming to our house for dinner.”

The Uygurs haven’t set a firm date for their opening yet, but Lucia is expected to open sometime this fall.

Attention yogis: DFW is celebrating its fourth annual Free Day of Yoga on Monday, Sept. 6.  Visit your nearest yoga studio to enjoy a day of stretching and relaxation.

The Oak Cliff yoga studio participating in the event includes:

Tranquilo, 12-1:30 p.m.

Just a few more hours until Labor Day weekend commences, so by all means, crack open a cold one when the work day ends, but if you’re tipsy, stay off the road.

For starters, you can avoid murdering innocent people or yourself. In addition, you can avoid going to jail and the life-changing consequences that go along with DWI convictions these days.

Beginning today at 6 p.m, the Dallas Police will initiate the no-refusal practice throughout the weekend. That means if you are arrested for DWI and refuse to voluntarily provide a breath or blood sample, the arresting officer will secure a search warrant and direct health care professionals to obtain a blood sample and have it forwarded to the District Attorney’s office for filing.

Drink, drive, go to jail, buddy. If you get caught, there’s no getting out of it. And while no time’s a good time to sit in Lew’s Sterrett jailhouse, Texas-OU weekend, Memorial Day weekend, Labor Day weekends and the like (So I’ve heard) are particularly overcrowded and uncomfortable … and that’s just the beginning of your troubles.

Davis Guggenheim wants to change the public education system in America. The only problem is that he’s not a national education czar or local school board member, he’s not a principal or even a teacher – he’s a Hollywood filmmaker.

I attended a screening of Guggenheim’s latest project, called “Waiting for Superman,” which will hit local theaters October 1. The documentary is a sad tale of decline and decay – not just of buildings and systems but of the lives and minds of young people. Guggenheim hopes it will have a similar effect as his previous film, “An Inconvenient Truth” – it will upset you and prompt you to take action.

Guggenheim, who’s married to actress Elisabeth Shue and has three kids of his own, was inspired by the Teach For America program and says he had one goal in making the movie – “to get people to care about other people’s children.” While filming he says he had a breakthrough – he learned the system only works for the adults involved. (more…)

The store is called Repotted, and owners Jamie Laws and Elizabeth Cummings are focused on selling Texas grown plants and natural gardening supplies.

They expect to open Sept. 18 in the old Oak Cliff Mercantile building, a converted Conoco station that was Oak Cliff real estate maven Ruth Chenoweth’s office for many years. It has been vacant since the Mercantile owners moved closer to family in Oklahoma almost five years ago.

Repotted’s owners want to sell organic plants whenever possible, but there are only three plant farms in Texas that are all organic, Laws says. And Repotted’s priority is to sell plants that are adaptive or native to Texas. Most big garden stores don’t do that, Laws says. They often buy plants from all over the place, so if someone goes in and buys something that was grown in Wisconsin, say, it might die after a few days in a Texas garden.

“There really aren’t very many good local garden stores in Dallas,” Laws says. “And only one that I know of is remotely organic.”

(more…)

Tonight, Sept. 2, is First Thursday in the Bishop Arts District, and there are a couple of celebrations. DIRT Design Studio, which took over the space that used to house Decorazon Gallery, is having an opening party. And ONLi is celebrating its one-year anniversary.

The women who own Oil and Cotton and Make Shop & Studio are having a big yard sale with their friends at Tyler and Seventh. The sale started today, and it goes through Sunday.

The Kessler has Cafe Antarsia on Friday, and Suzanna Choffel on Saturday.