Tag Archives: Brut

Wine Review: E Carrel Brut Sparkling Wine from Savoie France

Just before you get to Swiss and Italian Alps. Just before you bathe yourself in fondue. Make a wine stop in France’s Savoie:

Savoie is a collection of seven gerrymandered valleys just warm enough to ripen grapes. Romans called it Sapaudia or Sabaudia: land covered in fir trees. Clearly, they had little confidence in its wine potential. But the French needed somewhere to ski. So they annexed Savoie in 1860. Continue reading →

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New Year Sparkling Wine: Champagne vs Cremant de Limoux and Loire

And so it ends not with a whimper but a bang. We cannot leave Paris without cracking a few more bottles of bubbly. No 191 day EU Austerity Drinking Tour could finish France without value Cremant or Champagne.

For a mere €15.00 we find true, actual, not Prosecco, Champagne from Champagne, France (specifically the village of Buxeuil in the region’s southern extreme). Grower André Diligent et Fils created this Brut: Continue reading →

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Sparkling Riesling in Dresden Zwinger Palace: EU Austerity Drinking Tour EU Austerity Drinking Tour:

152 days of travel have gained a sort of normalcy. We book a place. We pack. We train. We walk until our feet fall off, eat, visit museum/church/site/brewery/distillery/winery and then collapse. A few days later it begins again.

Today, we leave fabulous Prague and its beer for Dresden: which is in Germany: which makes wine, wine worthy again of writing about: unlike Prague, which was horrid. Continue reading →

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Thirsty Thursday: Birthday Champagne Challenge at Paley’s Place LeMaire

It’s my wife’s birthday and I’m in trouble. I sell wine to restaurants throughout Portland. But who to choose. We rarely eat out. We mostly cook, and it’s usually vegetarian. So the whole restaurant scene seems like overpriced, meat-fest fluff (especially when we buy wine at cost). Yet, deep down, she wants to be overwhelmed. Nothing too formal, just outstanding.

Argghhh… Continue reading →

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

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 →

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