Category Archives: Uncategorized

Mellowing Madrid: EU Austerity Drinking Tour Day 111

Posted on May 5, 2014 by waywardwine

This Monday’s installment of our EU Austerity Drinking Tour finds Tracy and I 111 days deep into Europe. Bedazzling Barcelona broke us.  Constant sight-seeing, drinking, and planning had turned into a chore.  Shoes, ipods, clothes, health, sanity were all tattered. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Thirsty Thursday: Nebbiolo, Nino Negri, Quadrio, Valtellina Superiore DOCG, Italy 2010

Posted on May 1, 2014 by waywardwine

Think Nebbiolo and hopefully your heart flies to Barbaresco or Barolo: famed homes devoted to the grape. Their wines range from light yet tannic, austere yet floral, to rich, dark, and chewy. They are usually complex and deservedly expensive.

But unknown to a world before DNA, Nebbiolo spread its fingers up valleys, reaching into the Italian Alps. It crept into land-locked Lombardy, rooting in the canyon valley of Valtellina. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Barcelona Brakes and Beer: EU Austerity Drinking Tour La Cervesera Artesana

Posted on April 28, 2014 by waywardwine

106 days in, and our EU Austerity Drinking Tour has taken its toll. Barcelona gleams sunny and beautiful but seems cursed.

I dropped my iPod: home to all my wine notes, photos, and videos. Also, superglue has stopped holding my fancy Vibram shoes together. Worse, Spain’s economy cracks around us. Pickpockets swarm our outings. Financial tensions rile the (otherwise lovely) international couple that hosts us. But worst of all, Tracy’s stomach decides to stop working.

She becomes bedridden. All she can eat are prunes, water, and Cava. So like any good husband, I leave her. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Thirsty Thursday: Stone Cottage Cellars, Gewurztraminer, West Elks AVA, Colorado 2012

Posted on April 24, 2014 by waywardwine

So…Colorado:

This land-locked state gains fame for its Rocky Mountains, Broncos, and Coors: the largest…single brewery…in the world (22 million barrels roll out annually).

But they also grow grapes.

Let me put my cowboy hat on and you a tale. Along the Gunnison river, around Hotchkiss and Paonia, in the shadow of snow-capped peaks, lays the West Elks AVA. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Easter Alleviation: Langlois-Chateau, Brut Rose, Cremant de Loire, France NV

Posted on April 17, 2014 by waywardwine

Easter arrives this weekend.  But before you ruin both Cooks, André, Prosecco (and your palate) with orange juice, elegant-up your game with a Brut Rosé from the Loire. Parisian bistros pretty much funnel the stuff upriver, filling glasses of beret … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments