This wine cost nine bucks. How do the Italians do it? Their economy is in shambles and the euro is killing the dollar. If this was French wine, it would cost $15 or $18. I’m not complaining, of course. I’m just continually and pleasantly surprised by the quality and value so many Italian wines offer.

The Farnese (purchased, available at Jimmy’s) was exactly what I was hoping for when I bought it. There is soft white fruit in the middle (an English critic described it as “gently fragrant,” which is why Engish wine writing is so much fun), low alcohol (12 percent), not a lot of acid, and a kind of stony finish. In this, it’s a wonderful antidote to all the mass-produced, turpentine-like pinot grigio that we’re told we’re supposed to like and that everyone seems to be making these days. Right, Drew B.?

Pair this not only with seafood, but spicy food. That’s what I did (chicken tamales with green sauce), and it worked wonderfully. And, for those of you keeping track of grape varieties, there is apparently a difference between the trebbiano grape and the grape that is called trebbiano in the Abruzzo region of Italy. The former is more or less ugni blanc, one of my old pals, while the latter is something called bombino bianco. Maybe I can get the Italian Wine Guy to explain the difference.

Friend apple pie at Purple Cow (Photo by Molly Dickson)

Got dinner plans tomorrow? Starting at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Purple Cow at Preston and Royal will donate 15 percent of all its sales to the Dallas Derby Devils. It includes alcohol sales.

DDD is the original Dallas-Fort Worth roller derby league with a roster of more than 120 active skaters. In fact, it’s the largest flat track derby team in the south.

It’s hard not to respect these fierce females who compete in bouts for sell-out crowds and get pretty bruised up in the process. I remember interviewing Preston Hollow resident Meg Weathers with Assassination City Roller Derby for our March 2010 issue about hardcore athletes. She called her battle scars “badges of honor.”

The promotion is a good excuse to indulge in some of Purple Cow’s yummy burgers and milkshakes. The fried apple pie is heavenly.

The new Central Market at Preston and Royal is finally ready to open at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. If you were passing through the neighborhood, you probably noticed the commotion this morning. A sneak preview featured free food, a tour of the grocery store, a festive clown and several neighborhood dignitaries, including Mayor Mike Rawlings and council members Ann Margolin and Linda Koop. The Hillcrest High School marching band performed on the balcony and inside the entryway.

This is one of Central Market’s smaller stores at 30,000 square feet. The produce section is piled high with nearly every type pf fruit and vegetable – there’s even a small section dedicated to exotic ones. Keep winding around and you’ll find the same variety of meats, cheeses, baked goods, fresh sandwiches as well as a sea of wines and beers to choose from.

At the preview, Central Market representatives announced they were giving $10,000 to the Preston Royal and Park Forest libraries, showing how “private enterprise can help with public needs,” Rawlings said.

The holiday that must not be named is next week. You want to buy sparkling wine. But sparkling wine, being sparkling wine, is expensive and confusing.

Not to worry. I am on the job, as always, looking out for everyone caught between bubbly’s rock and hard place. The Bertrand ($15, sample) is sparkling wine from France that isn’t made in Champagne, which is why it’s one-third the price of entry-level Champagne. Better yet, it has much more than one-third of the quality, and is a tremendous value.

It’s made using the same method as Champagne, and it uses more or less the same grapes (including pinot noir, which is not common in sparkling wine made in France outside of Champagne). That’s one reason why it delivers so much value; its grapes are grown in the Limoux region in the Languedoc, where land is a fraction of the price of Champagne.

This is not as simple a wine as its price would indicate; the pinot noir gives it an edge that others don’t have. Look for very crisp apple fruit and an impressively long finish (lemon zest, maybe?). And you can impress everyone with your bubbly knowledge: If the wine says Cremant on the label, as this does, that means it’s sparkling wine made in the traditional method but not in Champagne. Highly recommended, and sure to impress whoever needs impressing next week.

White wines from France’s Rhone region aren’t particularly well known and, at least in this country, don’t get all that much respect. You don’t see many of them on store shelves or restaurant wine lists, and you don’t see many of them reviewed, for that matter.

Which is a shame, given that white Rhones are usually different and interesting, and that’s something I’m always looking for. The Belleruche ($12, purchased, available at Spec’s), from one of the Rhone’s largest producers, has always been one of my favorite wines for just that reason. When I can find it, of course.

This is a previous vintage, and the extra year of bottle age has given the wine, a blend of grenache blanc, clairette and bourboulenc, a little more character. There is lots of white pepper, some oiliness and just a hint of a green fruit, like lime or apple. This is a not a white wine for people who need something fruit forward, like sauvignon blanc or chardonnay, but it’s not supposed to be.

And don’t worry that you haven’t heard of the grapes used to make it — almost no one who isn’t in the wine business has heard of them, either. Which is another reason why the wine is so interesting, and that’s three more grapes for your Wine Century Club effort. Chill this and drink it on its own or with something like goat cheese; roast pork with apples would be terrific, too.

The chain’s ninth store at Preston and Royal will be 30,000 square feet, which is roughly half of its current stores.

In a press release announcing the store’s grand opening at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, Central Market senior vice president Stephen Butt noted that squeezing Central Market’s prototype into the former Borders location took some creativity, and the most obvious place to look for inspiration was New York City, ” a place with great grocery stores built into smaller square footage,” he says. The Central Market team spent months traveling to New York “to study the most innovative delis and grocery concepts to learn how to pack the most flavor into every square foot,” Butt says.

The Preston Royal Central Market will also draw from the Big Apple with an on-site bakery featuring traditional “boiled then baked” bagels and new bialys, and artisan salumi from NYC-based Charlito’s Cocina. Even with these new features, Butt promises that the smaller store also will “have everything our customers have come to love about Central Market.”

Dallas-based Mimi’s Pizzeria is now open next to El Fenix at Hillcrest and Northwest Highway.

Don’t dismiss a wine just because it doesn’t have a cork. Screwcap, Tetrapak, box … The type of closure is no longer a reflection of quality. These wines show just that.

This cozy Italian spot offers handmade pastas influenced by chef Franscesco Farris’ Sardinian roots.

Children’s Medical Center of Dallas isn’t located in Preston Hollow, but a new organization for young professionals is attracting lots of Ursuline, Jesuit, Hockaday, ESD and other North Dallas private school grads as it fosters young leaders and supports Dallas’ not-for-profit children’s hospital.

Sarah Smith, who graduated from Ursuline, serves as Board Chairman for “The One” Society, founded in 2010 to engage young people starting their careers to include philanthropy in their busy lives. In an age when community service is often required to complete high school and college, recent graduates bring years of experience and multiple finely-tuned skills to the world of fundraising and volunteerism. “The One” Society merges fun social events with hands-on service opportunities.

Board members Bryan Grabowsky (Jesuit), Britt Luecke (ESD), Carey White (Ursuline), Alex Wales (Ursuline) and Emily Rembert (Ursuline) are hoping to welcome a sea of Preston Hollow faces at the 3rd annual Membership Launch Party January 26th. The event will be held at Sfuzzi Uptown, 2533 McKinney Avenue, from 6-8:30pm, and they’re hoping their friends will bring along work buddies or college connections who may be hoping to “click in” to the Dallas scene in a more meaningful way.

“The One” Society has an annual membership contribution fee of $100 (discounted to $75 if you join in January and payable in full or monthly) and has raised more than $73,000 for Children’s with the help of more than 270 young professionals over its first two years. (They’ve added a new couple’s membership this year, $200 for 2 or $150 before Feb. 1). An extensive calendar of free events is open to members, including happy hours, hospital tours, volunteer & patient parties and educational events.

To join, you can show up to Sfuzzi or email Sarah here or Emily here. As the mom of a former patient at Children’s, I can tell you there’ll be lots of families who’ll be glad you did.