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.

Torbreck, Cuvée Juveniles, Barossa Valley, Australia 2010

Posted on January 30, 2014 by waywardwine

Forget Yellowtail. Forget Crocodile Dundee. Forget everything you know about Australia.

Instead, put your mind in Paris. Get off at the Pyramide Metro, not far from the Louvre. Wiggle your way to 47 rue de Richelieu, and then, behold: Juveniles:

Now think of Scotland. Because inside you will find fantastic British farmhouse cheese, charcuterie, and Haggis always on the menu. Tim Johnston, a Scot ex-pat, founded it decades ago.

But now, turn to South East France, because Juveniles is a wine bar, and gained its cult following for pouring the Rhône Valley’s best wines. But then, Tim shocked Paris. He poured Australian Shiraz.

Your head may be spinning, but follow the thread. Australia grows Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, and other varietals typical of the Rhône Valley. Many vines predate the French (thanks to dodging phyloxera). And what would pair better with haggis for cult Rhône drinkers than Shiraz. Continue reading →

Posted in EMPTIED BOTTLES, Grenache | Tagged Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley, Craig Isbel, Dave Powell, David Powell, Grenache, haggis, Juveniles, Juveniles Bar, Mouvedre, Paris, Shiraz, Syrah, Tim Johnston, Torbreck | 1 Comment

Other Muscadets and Oddities: Coteaux de la Loire, Grandlieu, Gros Plant, Fiefs Vendeens, Chenin, and Muscadet

Posted on December 23, 2013 by waywardwine

Yes. Winter grips the Northern hemisphere. But turn your minds to warmer weather. Our 7 month 13 country EU Austerity Drinking Tour has visited Muscadet’s famed Sèvre-et-Maine and every-day Muscadet. This Monday, we try on Muscadet’s other wine regions for size.

On the Loire’s right bank, North of Sèvre et Maine sits Coteaux de la Loire in the hills above Ancenis:

They too mainly grow Muscadet. But how do they perform:

Les Vignerons de la Noëlle’s “Folies Siffait” Muscadet Coteaux de la Loire, France 2011

Like most Muscadet, Noëlle looks pale lemon with a slight fizz. Continue reading →

Posted in Muscadet, White, WINERIES WANDERED | Tagged Armagnac, chenin blanc, Cognac, Coteaux de la Loire, European Union, Fiefs Vendéens, Folle Blanche, France, Grand-Lieu, GrandLieu, Landelle, Les Vignerons de la Noëlle, Loire, Muscadet, Noëlle, Savenniéres | 2 Comments

Festive Fizz: Skip Champagne for Sparkling Wine from Limoux, France for New Year’s

Posted on December 19, 2013 by waywardwine

Holiday parties, like the blob, suck all your time. New Year’s Day, like Dick Clark’s ghost, looms. Appetizers stare at us, like piranha on small plates. We need bubbly.

But we tire of bargain Prosecco. Champagne cost too much to share. American bubbly is either too cheap, or too expensive. Cava works, but seems too familiar.

Enter Limoux:

The Pyrenees Mountains cut France and Spain apart. Their foothills form Limoux: a region just south of the medieval fortress town of Caracassonne. Inland and high up, both Mediterranean warmth and Atlantic cold make Limoux the coolest region this far south in France. Its soil is equally rough: full of rocky, sandstone, limestone, and clay.

Cold temperatures, challenging soil, high elevations: the perfect recipe for quality bubbly. Continue reading →

Posted in EMPTIED BOTTLES, Limoux, Sparkling | Tagged Alfons Mucha, Blanquette de Limoux, Boucheron, Caracassonne, Champagne, chenin blanc, Dick Clark, France, French New Wave, Languedoc, languedoc-roussillon, Limoux, Limoux wine, mauzac, Mauzac grape, Mucha, Pyrenees, Sparkling wine, St-Hilaire | 4 Comments

Aging Wine on Sludge: Muscadet Sur lie -vs- Sans lie

Posted on December 16, 2013 by waywardwine

Last Monday’s EU Austerity Drinking Tour visited Clisson: home to Muscdet Sèvre et Maine. Before we left, we popped into their tasting room and found this:

Muscadet wine filled this barrel-with-its-skirt-lifted. Neon lights lit the thing that makes Muscadet fantastic: sludge:

That sludge consists of months of sedimentation of dead yeast and particulates. Called lie (lees), nearly half of Muscadet Sèvre et Maine proudly adds “sur lie” (on the lees) to its labels. But why?

To find out, we sample through twenty wines for free at Nantes’ Maison des Vins de Loire:

Let’s begin with plain ‘ol Muscadet:

Château-Thébaud uses grapes from grower Poiron Dabin. Its pale gold color runs from the core to the rim. Pure, strong aromas waft of honey, flint, smoke, and salt. It feels dry, still racing with acidity, mild alcohol, a lightish body, and moderately intense flavors of tart green apple, grass, salt, and bees’ wax. The length is only medium. Yet five years old, this Muscadet remains fresh and clean cut. It is textbook, faultless, and very good (4 of 5). Continue reading →

Posted in Muscadet, White | Tagged Château-Thébaud, Cheese, Clisson, Cure Nantais, European Union, France, lees, Lees (fermentation), lees aging, lie, Maine, Maison des Vins de Loire, Muscadet, Nantes, sevre et maine, sur lie, wine, yeast | 2 Comments

Wine Geek Gift: Spätburgunder (aka Pinot Noir), August Kesseler, “Pinot N”, Pfalz, Germany 2010

Posted on December 12, 2013 by waywardwine

Your wine geek wakes early, runs downstairs, and to their delight, finds something green and red-capped beneath the tree.

The slender bottle looks German. “Mmm…Riesling”, they think. Then, on closer inspection, their head explodes like a Christmas craker:

Yes. Pinot Noir. From Germany.

Now German wine usually evokes rough memories of cheap Riesling:

Yet Germany ranks third in the world for Pinot Noir acreage (30,000, just behind France and the US). The problem is, Germans drink most of it. Meanwhile, they pulled the Blue Nun’s veil of Riesling over our eyes. We could only assume that they made nothing but sweet yet tart whites.

No more! Treat you and yours this holiday with German Pinot. Continue reading →