Call it what you will: Champagne, sparkling wine, bubbly, Cava or Prosecco. But whatever you call it, this is the time of year when the wine with all the fizzy stuff gets the most attention.

Chocolates come in the shape of a mustache, a bicycle, a cowboy boot — all of the little things that make Oak Cliff special.

Several neighbors who make their living in the culinary arts are sharing the stories behind their favorite recipes this month.

Construction has started on Monica Greene’s first Oak Cliff restaruant, Best Enchiladas Ever, or B.E.E. Greene is renovating the former Quinn pub at Davis near Zang.

The restaurant is a new concept from Greene.

“Think Chipotle, except with enchiladas, where you go through the line and choose what you want,” says Linda Holt of Square Foot Inc., which owns the building.

Greene is testing the concept in Oak Cliff, and she hopes it eventually will become a successful chain like Chipotle.

Regular visitors here will notice that there is no picture of Cristalino. Welcome to the wonderful world of American jurisprudence and the foolishness of the wine business.

In August, a federal district court in Minneapolis ruled that Cristalino, which is a much beloved $7 Spanish sparkling wine, infringed on the trademark of Cristal, a Champagne that costs about $200 a bottle and is favored by people who drive Escalades. Or, as the attorneys for Champagne Louis Roederer, the French luxury brand that owns Cristal, wrote: “The Defendants’ use of CRISTALINO on their sparkling wine product is an illegitimate brand extension that trades on the reputation and image of the famous mark, CRISTAL. Consumers likely believe that CRISTALINO sparkling wine is associated with, sponsored by, or is in some way connected with the maker of the prestige champagne CRISTAL.”

Sigh. And people wonder why I am so cranky. The Champagne business has been in tatters since the recession started, and Roederer decided to spend money on this lawsuit? The judge, in deciding the case, wrote that there was evidence that consumers could be confused, and if my reading of the law is correct, that was enough to decide in Roederer’s favor. It didn’t matter whether Cristal lost sales to Cristalino (which was unclear). Cristalino had to redesign and re-label its bottle, which is now white and includes a disclaimer that says it isn’t affiliated with Roederer or Cristal.

So this is what I’m going to do: Never drink a bottle of Cristal (which isn’t a problem, since I can’t afford it). Never, after this moment, write about or review a Roederer product, which include Roederer and Scharffenberger sparkling wines in California, a half a dozen or so French still wine brands, and the Portuguese Ramos Pinto label. And, of course, welcome Cristalino (purchased, widely available in its new bottle) into the 2011 $10 Hall of Fame, because it offers everything Cristal doesn’t — quality and value. And, yes, it would quite nice at Thanksgiving.

We all know that the major result of the passage of Proposition 2 in the recent wet/dry election is that Oak Cliff restaurants will not need to be private clubs in order to serve their patrons mixed drinks, wine and beer. Under the TABC rules for private clubs in dry areas, those restaurants were required to pick up their liquor from so-called Class B retail stores. Now those same restaurants will obtain a new type of TABC permit and be able to have liquor, wine and beer delivered to them by wholesale distributors.  Hopefully, this will result in a wider selection at the restaurants but, unfortunately, not lower pricing.

Consistency is the difference between great cheap wine and ordinary cheap wine. Two Buck Chuck, for all of its acclaim, does not taste the same from year to year, and its quality goes up and down with regularity. Even better made wines, like Meridian, suffer from this problem. One vintage will be terrific and the next will be much less than that (which is why its chardonnay is dropping out of the $10 Hall of Fame next year).

Bogle’s wines, on the other hand, do not have this problem. I have been writing about cheap wine for almost 20 years, and for almost 20 years I have always depended on Bogle. It has never let me down. The petite sirah ($10, purchased, widely available) is the winery’s showpiece, an outstanding example of the producer’s quality and consistency. It is always clean and always varietally correct, which means it’s not the same thing as a syrah and is not made to taste like one. This is saying something given the current trend toward blending varietal wines to make them sweeter and fruitier in a misguided attempt to appease the American palate.

Look for berry fruit, a touch of oak, and tannins at the end that give the wine some welcome oomph. This is a burly red meat wine — pot roast and gravy, stews that have been cooking all day, and the like. Highly recommended, and the kind of cheap wine that makes writing about cheap wine a pleasure.

One shameless plug: I’m celebrating the third birthday of my wine blog, The Wine Curmudgeon, with prize giveaways the rest of the week. Today, it’s a bottle of Tormaresca Neprica — stop by and enter the contest.

The lawsuit asking for voiding the election on Proposition 1 (sale of beer and wine in grocery and convenience stores) was filed on Friday.  Among the reasons stated as to why the election should be voided:  Because the valid signatures  on the petition were not properly certified prior to calling the election and because historically dry areas like Oak Cliff should have their votes counted separately from the city-wide vote.  Interesting points that the City of Dallas has disputed  for several months.

Another interesting point:  The transmittal letter to the district clerk states, in this election contest, that the district judges in Dallas County should be disqualified from hearing the case and requests a special judge (presumably from outside Dallas County) to be appointed to hear the case in Dallas County.  Stay tuned on that issue.

In the meantime and since no injunction was requested, TABC should be accepting applications.  In anticipation of permits being issued in the near future, some grocery stores are already re-modeling to put in coolers for beer and wine.

I was in New York City last weekend. More accurately, I ate my way around the city. And I noticed some interesting things. All the restaurants, for example, have grades in the window (A,B,C). Turns out that, effective last summer, New York City began requiring restaurants to post letter grades that correspond to scores it receives from its sanitary inspection. Grade cards must be posted where they can easily be seen by people passing by. NYC has 24,000 restaurants, so I would imagine this new requirement serves to greatly motivate restaurateurs to maintain high standards—you can pass on a “C” restaurant and find an “A” next door.

Here in Big D, restaurant inspection scores are readily available to the public, but, honestly, how often are we going to check the score before we try a place out? I do now, but hadn’t until recently when we shared our findings here on Back Talk. It would be a lot easier if the scores were right there in the window, no? I did notice that even the one C-grade spot I saw in NYC wasn’t short on customers, but since the law is so new, I’m not sure customers know to look for the grade yet. Or, maybe they are loyal to their favorite places regardless of the scores.

Another note, all the deli’s and chains had calorie counts listed for menu items. Alas, this is also required by the NYC Health Department. Plus, when I was researching it, I remembered this NY Times story from back in March noting that all major chain restaurants nationwide will soon be required to do this. So, just like I couldn’t order that salmon dill bagel sandwich on Wall St. without knowing that it contained more than 500 calories, I will soon have to see that a caramel Frappucino is 380 calories. Will this affect the way people order? I know it will for me, because I am calorie conscious, though I won’t go looking for the calorie count if it’s not easy to find. So bummer for me. Another truth I don’t want to hear. But I think most will stick to what they like even if it stands to make us pudgier. New York has reported “mixed results at best” with the initiative.

Andy Siegel, the lawyer for the “no” vote proponents in the recent liquor election, says he will file a lawsuit seeking to overturn the favorable vote on Proposition 1, i.e., wine and beer sales in convenience and grocery stores ( so-called off-premises sales), within 30 days of the official canvass of the votes (which should occur sometime this week).  During the time that litigation is pending, it is unclear whether applications for such sales would be processed.  Siegel tells me that TABC has reacted differently in different situations, but TABC has indicated that it won’t stop permit approval without a court order. Until the litigation is filed, and we see if an injunction is requested and granted, it is hard to predict at this time whether TABC would even accept Proposition 1 applications.

Several stores have stated that they are interested in locating in Oak Cliff once this issue is settled and, of course, lots of us would like to buy beer and wine at the Tom Thumb on Hampton.

Fortunately for restaurants in Oak Cliff, Siegel also says he has no instructions to litigate Proposition 2 (on-premises sales of mixed drinks, beer and wine).  This is the proposition that got rid of the “private club” song and dance routine that restaurants and its patrons in Oak Cliff had to go through to order a glass of wine or a martini with their meal. Once the official canvass occurs for that Proposition, TABC should be able to process applications by restaurants.  If past experience is any indication, that approval process should take 6-8 weeks.

So, is it possible that Cliff dwellers will be able to order a cosmo at their favorite restaurant, without having to show a Unicard, by the end of the year?  Time will tell.

For a fuller history of this issue, read the October 2010 cover story of the Advocate.