Category Archives: EMPTIED BOTTLES

Here reside my bottle breakdowns. These reviews provide information about each wine’s context: history, geography, value, etc., and composition: from appearance and aromas, to sweetness, acidity, tannin, body, length, flavors and quality within its type. Each review features a chart where I rank the wine’s qualities (e.g. light, medium, or full bodied) according to the Wine and Spirit Education Trust’s tasting guide. These are snapshots of a wine and reviewer. Don’t be surprised if the wine and your perception of it change. Use this data to buy and taste wine with purpose.

Stop worrying if a wine is bad or good. Judgment only describes the judge. Instead, treat each wine, each bottle, even each sip as a meeting unique unto itself. Find new wines here to stretch your mind and palate.

Open bottle. Open mind.

Cabernet Franc Late Harvest, Palmer Vineyards, North Fork Long Island NY 2007

Posted on May 9, 2011 by waywardwine

You get home from a weekend of wine tasting, partially unpack and then collapse. A few months later you find bottles from the trip. But when you open them, annoyingly, you don’t travel through space and time to that ethereal … Continue reading →

Grenache/Syrah, Clos Chanteduc, Côtes du Rhône, France 2009

Posted on April 25, 2011 by waywardwine

Clos Chanteduc is delicious. Drink it. End of story. Or is it? In 1984, now famous chef Patricia Wells left America to live in Provence. She watched her first harvest from the villa in idle bliss, but was soon shocked. … Continue reading →

Posted in Grenache Blend, Red | Tagged Clos Chanteduc, Côtes-du-Rhône, French wine, Grenache, Kermit Lynch, Patricia Wells, Provence, Syrah, wine | 3 Comments

Chardonnay, Sevastopol Winery “Krimskoye” Semi-Sweet, “Premium Crimean White Champagne” NV

Posted on April 18, 2011 by waywardwine

Quietly poking into the US market, like an accidental cellphone call, is the sparkler from Sevastopol Winery. It comes from Crimea: today a sub-republic of Ukraine. This peninsula, provides a funny hat for the Black Sea. If the name Crimea … Continue reading →

Posted in Chardonnay, Sparkling | Tagged Black sea, bubbly, Bulgars, Champagne, chardonnay, Cimmerians, Crimea, Khazars, Krimskoye, Russian, Sevastopol, Sparkling wine, Tatar, Ukraine, wine | 1 Comment

Cabernet Franc, Raffault “Les Galuches”, Chinon, France 2009

Posted on April 11, 2011 by waywardwine

Cabernet franc: the parent you wished you had. Not to be confused with its bombastic child, cabernet sauvignon (born from pollen swapping with sauvignon blanc). The cabs do share similarities: strong tannins, notes of cassis, berry, pepper and herbs. Yet … Continue reading →

Posted in Cabernet Franc, Red | Tagged Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chinon, France, Loire Valley, Oak (wine), Vienne, wine, Wine tasting descriptors | 3 Comments

Malbec-Merlot, Mission La Caminade, Cahors 2007

Posted on April 4, 2011 by waywardwine

Already tired of malbec? Branch out from Argentina and take a twelve dollar trip to the grape’s ancestral home: Cahors. Upriver from Bordeaux, the village of Cahors rests on a kink along the Lot river in the center of southwestern … Continue reading →