Category Archives: Sparkling

Wine Review: Krug Brut Champagne NV 167th Edition

Posted on October 30, 2020 by waywardwine

Exciting times! Join me and try Krug’s 167th Brut non vintage Champagne and decide, is it worth it? Opened October 23rd 2020 to celebrate my passing the WSET Level 4 Diploma theory paper. Continue reading →

Posted in Champagne, Champagne, EMPTIED BOTTLES | Tagged aspiration, Champagne, chardonnay, drink, expensive wine, France, gold, Halloween, Krug, lifestyle, Pinot meunier, pinot noir, Sparkling wine, travel, value wine, wine, wine review | Leave a comment

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 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

Thirsty Thursday: Nino Franco, Faìve, Spumante Brut Rosé, Valdobbiadene, Italy 2011

Posted on February 20, 2014 by waywardwine

This Thirsty Thursday takes us to Italy. Just above Venice is Valdobbiadene: cradle of Prosecco.

But today’s wine is weird. It looks neither pale green, sweet, nor made from Glera (Prosecco’s only grape). It is pink:

But not just any pink. This glinting, copper flame lives up to its name: Faìve (FieEEve): poetically Italian for those sparks and tongues whipping about at the top of a fire.

So what goes in it?

Around 2000, Primo Franco got bored with perfecting fantastic, dry, single-vineyard Prosecco that was changing the world. So he went to buddy Brandino Brandolini, who grows red grapes. But they broke with Champagne’s (and the world’s) Pinot-hegemony. Heck, they also left red Italian varietals behind. Instead, they used Merlot and Cabernet: grapes that rarely see the light of bubbly. But this ain’t a red Bordeaux. Continue reading →

Posted in Sparkling | Tagged Brut, Brut Rosé, Faìve, italy, Nino Franco, Primo Franco, Prosecco, Rosé, Spumante, Valdobbiadene | 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 →