Every Monday, discover new wines, regions, and ways to understand this fermenting sea.
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Munching Vidal Blanc on Keuka Lake, New York
Tag Archives: France
Counting Down: How to Crack Champagne for New Year’s Eve
The countdown begins. Eyes watch the ball drop. 3. 2. 1.
Corks crack open, impale an uncle, and flutes fill with Champagne. It disappears just as quickly. But between the hugs, huzzahs, resolutions, and regrets, you wonder: was that $40 plus bottle of Frenchness worth it?
It tasted fine. Maybe a bit tart, or a bit fruity, or a bit toasty. But memorable? Maybe it was too cold. Maybe the excitement distracted you. But we here at Wayward Wine blame New Year’s Eve. Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 2014, Blue Top, Bordeaux, Brut, Champagne, France, Heidsieck & Co Monopole, New year, Non Vintage, Paris, Prosecco, Sparkling wine
4 Comments
Other Muscadets and Oddities: Coteaux de la Loire, Grandlieu, Gros Plant, Fiefs Vendeens, Chenin, and Muscadet
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
Festive Fizz: Skip Champagne for Sparkling Wine from Limoux, France for New Year’s
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
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
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
Posted in Pinot Noir, Red
Tagged Alsace, August Kesseler, Blue Nun, California, DDR, France, Germany, goat cheese, Kesseler, Oregon, pinot noir, riesling, Spätburgunder, Vosges Mountains, Wine Geek
2 Comments
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