Author Archives: waywardwine

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About waywardwine

Follow Wayward Wine (WSET3) to tour the world's exciting vineyards, breweries, and distilleries, while discovering new drinks.

Many-Layered Toledo

Posted on May 12, 2014 by waywardwine

A 25 minute train takes us to Toledo on Day 113 of our EU Austerity Drinking Tour. The ancient city lies South of Madrid, and although not known for wine, should get us drunk on culture.

We walk from the oddly Moroccan-looking train station, along the river, to the citadel’s bridge.

Western walls crowned with Christian churches and Renaissance pavillons make Toledo look like any old, mind-blowingly impressive, European citadel. But then we cross the bridge.

Islamic arches and ornaments interweave with the stone and brickwork.

Imagine your Ford truck with a Chinese dragon statue where the chair should be.

Three centuries of Islamic rule paint Toledo. We climb then weave through city square, alleys, and paths. Toledo’s massive yet intricate Cathedral demands a tour. Continue reading →

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Thirsty Thursday: Mother’s Day Rosé Cliché

Posted on May 8, 2014 by waywardwine

Mother’s Day is at bay. Now you could get creative and buy her Single Malt Whiskey (could work). But honestly, Spring is also here (well, mostly). Flowers bloom. These warm-ish, sunny-ish days call from something fresh, fruity, and friendly. A bellowing cabernet might distract from those lovely conversations about why you haven’t had kids yet.

So embrace that marketed cliché: buy rosé for Mother’s Day!

But since you might drink it as well, why not stretch her and your boundaries with a region too often lost in the pink sea of white zin and Provence: Bardolino Chiaretto Continue reading →

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Mellowing Madrid: EU Austerity Drinking Tour Day 111

Posted on May 5, 2014 by waywardwine

This Monday’s installment of our EU Austerity Drinking Tour finds Tracy and I 111 days deep into Europe. Bedazzling Barcelona broke us.  Constant sight-seeing, drinking, and planning had turned into a chore.  Shoes, ipods, clothes, health, sanity were all tattered. … Continue reading →

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Thirsty Thursday: Nebbiolo, Nino Negri, Quadrio, Valtellina Superiore DOCG, Italy 2010

Posted on May 1, 2014 by waywardwine

Think Nebbiolo and hopefully your heart flies to Barbaresco or Barolo: famed homes devoted to the grape. Their wines range from light yet tannic, austere yet floral, to rich, dark, and chewy. They are usually complex and deservedly expensive.

But unknown to a world before DNA, Nebbiolo spread its fingers up valleys, reaching into the Italian Alps. It crept into land-locked Lombardy, rooting in the canyon valley of Valtellina. Continue reading →

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Barcelona Brakes and Beer: EU Austerity Drinking Tour La Cervesera Artesana

Posted on April 28, 2014 by waywardwine

106 days in, and our EU Austerity Drinking Tour has taken its toll. Barcelona gleams sunny and beautiful but seems cursed.

I dropped my iPod: home to all my wine notes, photos, and videos. Also, superglue has stopped holding my fancy Vibram shoes together. Worse, Spain’s economy cracks around us. Pickpockets swarm our outings. Financial tensions rile the (otherwise lovely) international couple that hosts us. But worst of all, Tracy’s stomach decides to stop working.

She becomes bedridden. All she can eat are prunes, water, and Cava. So like any good husband, I leave her. Continue reading →

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