This past Sunday, I embarked on the rare (for me) business trip and all the fun of waiting around at airports.  Destination one was DFW Terminal A.  I knew that breakfast would wear off long before I arrived at the hotel in Waltham later that evening, and my airline (American) was going to charge for food not of my choosing.  After passing a number of fast food and sit-down type places, I found La Bodega at gate A15.  La Bodega is a winery tasting room in an airport.  Like a moth to a flame, I found what I was looking for.

The Texas Winery Guide says that La Bodega "is the only winery in an airport bonded to produce wine on-site." Well, there are two locations in DFW.  I don't know if the one in Terminal D is much larger, but there isn't enough space to make wine here.

The wine list was interesting; one group is titled sexy reds.  Texas, California, Italy and more wine producing areas were represented.  A featured wine, a meritage blend from Napa sounded great, but a nasty, chunky cold accompanied me from Helotes and the nose was somewhat out of joint.  Anyway, when visiting a winery you want to taste the local stuff.  I  picked the La Bodega Private Reserve Cabernet with a snack tray.   I hope this doesn't sound like a slam against the La Bodega Cab; even the best wine in the world wouldn't have done much for me.  I did, however, catch the sharp bite on the finish, characteristic of many Texas Cabs.

The real highlight of the 30-minute visit was conversation.  Ok, the olive tapenade wasn't bad either.  Anyway, the wine consultant behind the bar knew her wine, and we talked about Texas wines in general, where the best grapes are sourced from, and some of the more interesting people in the Texas wine business.  She also mentioned that the annual wine festival in Grapevine (near DFW) is not to be missed. A couple Australians dropped in and joined the conversation.  They were returning from a trip to Argentina and raved about the restaurants and wine there.

Before I knew it, the time to board the plane had arrived.  Had I any inkling that I would be deplaning a few minutes after getting to my seat because the airplane had a boo-boo, I would have stayed a lot longer.  Anyway, if you have some time between flights in DFW, visit La Bodega.  It's so much better than a cheese burger and fries.