B.Y.O.B. in D.F.W: Nonna Tata in Fort Worth

Meet Howard Marc Spector, a local attorney and a wine collector. He gave up golf in 1998 to pursue his passion for wine. He won’t tell me how much wine he has in his cellar, but to give you an insight into his wine profile, he will allow me to print a breakdown of his collection: 25% German, 33% French, 10% Italian, 10% Spain/Portugal, 15-20% USA.

When he goes out to dinner, he likes to tote his own wine. He has perfected the fine art of B.Y.O.B. Today he starts a series of B.Y.O.B reports. Along the way, he will fill you in on how he and  his wine club manage to drink the wine they want at the restaurant they choose. Welcome him.

Twelve pound vinyl luggage hanging off your shoulder may not seem like a chic fashion accessory, but for wine lovers everywhere, there is no better item of arm-candy than a three-bottle wine carrier with a strap as wide as a scarf. And even if you don’t want to toss around phrases like “tea-infused,” “tannic structure,” “kirsch,” and “essence of wet dog fur,” you may still enjoy the Holy Grail of food and wine — BYOB.

BYOB used to sound cheap – it meant we had a surplus of folks on the party list, but a deficit in the beer budget.  Now we have a more rarefied term for BYOB – corkage, as in “Do you allow corkage?” Over time, I am going to let you in on my local wine group’s corkage secrets.  Who we are, where we go, what wines we bring, and how we decide.  I’ll also explain the etiquette of corkage – how to ask, how to ask again, how to get a restaurant to reconsider, and how not to screw it up for the rest of us.

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