Category Archives: White

Winter White Wine: Dry Riesling, Canoe Ridge, Snipes Vineyard, Columbia Valley, Washington 2007

Frost paints the earth silver. Thermostats shrink. Chill seeps through windows.

Instead of turning to robust reds for comfort, Wayward Wine will steer you from conformity. A huge Cabernet would crush your Thanksgiving turkey or Christmans goose. Instead, share the season’s cold snap and turn to a rich winter white.

This Thursday, our palates race to the highest elevations in Washington State. The grapes in question grew an average of 1,300 feet above sea level. They come from wine’s newest fringes: Horse Heaven Hills and Rattlesnake Hills, regions certified only in 2005 and 2006 respectively. Continue reading

Posted in EMPTIED BOTTLES, Riesling, White | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

VELO VOUVRAY 3: Maison Darragon: EU Austerity Drinking Tour #48

For this Monday’s EU AUSTERITY DRINKING ADVENTURE, we trade a château for a maison.

Underwhelmed and starving, we leave the lofty Château Moncontour of last week’s post. Our rent-o-bikes take us to lunch of quiches, bread, and fabulous pastries. We eat on a cliff square. Mossy shingles span below us, Vouvray’s crumbling, cream church looms above us.

Full, we follow signs up a tortuous slope. We pass a villa hewn into Vouvray’s famed tuffeau cliffs: Continue reading

Posted in Loire, White, WINERIES WANDERED | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Dry Riesling, Ravines, Finger Lakes, New York 2010

Every day, customers come to me: “where are your sweet reds? Whites? Pinks?”, or “I’m a sweet person”, or worse, “I’m a dry person.” Really? Well, I have a lotion for that. Asking for only sweet or dry wine shortcuts … Continue reading

Posted in Riesling, White | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

VIGNOLES.VS.VIGNOLES

So I made this white wine last year. It turned out flawed, hazy, and unexpectedly fizzy. The last third of each bottle is a yeasty murk and somewhat undrinkable. Corks shot from bottles until I caged them. Luckily, I like … Continue reading

Posted in Keuka Lake, New York, VIGNOLES VENTURING, White, WINERIES WANDERED | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Chardonnay, Hamilton Russell, Walker Bay, South Africa 2008

Chardonnay still brings this to most minds: Butter. Cloying, yellow richness in a glass. But is it the grape’s fault? Once alcoholic fermentation is finished, winemakers can add lactic acid bacteria (e.g. Oenococcus oeni, and Lactobacillus and Pediococcus species) to … Continue reading

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