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.

Happy Nearly New Year 2019 Serbian Wine Review

Posted on December 31, 2018 by waywardwine

My resolution for 2019 is to hone this dull, rusted blade that is waywardwine.com That starts with a wine from the fringes: sparkling Serbian wine by Kovacevic (pronounced “Co vah cheh vich”…probably…). Everyone needs a mother in law to smuggle … Continue reading →

Posted in Sparkling, Uncategorized | Tagged 2019, Champagne, drink, Europe, Happy, New Years Eve, Serbia, Sparkling wine, travel | 1 Comment

Canadian Pinot Noir Eh!? Alderlea v Quill v DeVine Vancouver Island BC

Posted on October 1, 2018 by waywardwine

By choice or by fate, I cannot escape Pinot Noir. I was born in Oregon and returned to its wine industry. Our traipse through the extreme wines of Vancouver Island have gone from bad to worse to decent, usually faltering with noble grapes like Chardonnay (here), Gamay (here), but succeeding with weird hybrids like Savignette (read here). Can this warm pocket in the Northernmost fringes of winemaker pull off the queen of grapes: Pinot Noir? Continue reading →

Posted in Pinot Noir, Uncategorized | Tagged Burgundy, Canada, Canadian wine, drink, Oregon, pinot noir, travel, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, wine | 3 Comments

Canadian Bubbly Eh? Averill Creek Vancouver Island Sparkling Wine Review #3

Posted on September 7, 2018 by waywardwine

OK! Ok! So our venture into wines from Vancouver Island VQA’s has drawn up bracingly tart Chardonnay (read here) and wild Gamay (read here). They have been real, reflective, but not great.

Maybe cool climate Burgundy and Beaujolais are not harsh enough models. Let us look to Champagne, to bubbly, to where fizz makes high acid wine magical. Continue reading →

Posted in Sparkling, Uncategorized | Tagged Averill Creek, bubbly, Canada, Champagne, drinks, Pinot Gris, pinot noir, Sparkling wine, Vancouver BC, Vancouver Island | 5 Comments

Canadian Chardonnay Eh!? Vancouver Island Wine Tour #1

Posted on August 26, 2018 by waywardwine

Check here over the next few weeks, I am touring Vancouver Island’s wines, ciders, and beer.

Wife, kid, and I (sounds like a musical) have driven a day to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. And yes, they grow enough grapes here to claim a Vancouver Island appellation or VQA. Sure, vines only started in 1992, today boasting 432 planted acres and 32 wineries (even Oregon’s tiny Willamette Valley claims 19,000 acres and over 500 wineries). But what that youth and extremely small scale means, however, is focus: most wineries are estate only, often organic, and handled by families from vineyard to bottle. Continue reading →

Posted in Chardonnay, Uncategorized | Tagged Canada, chardonnay, Cheese, Food, grapes, travel, trips, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, wine, Wolff Estate | 6 Comments

Thirsty Thursday: Domaine Terlato and Chapoutier Shiraz Viognier Victoria Australia 2012

Posted on February 26, 2015 by waywardwine

This Thirsty Thursday lights on a strange affair riven between three countries. The wine is from Domaine Terlato and Chapoutier. Neither name sounds very Australian. This is because Napa bound Tony Terlato began importing Michel Chapoutier’s wines from the Cotes … Continue reading →