Every Monday and Thursday, we discover new wines, regions, and ways to understand this fermenting sea.
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Munching Vidal Blanc on Keuka Lake, New York
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Tag Archives: grapes
An Amarone for October: Le Ragose 2007
Cold fixes in this side of the hemisphere. Leaves catch fire. Grey and rain dampen the ether. It is not Port season yet. But it is Fall. And I have the perfect wine.
Fly to Valpolicella, valley of many cellars. In the hills overlooking fair Verona grow swaths of vines. The Galli family tend 70 terraced acres near 1,200 feet above sea level: the highest in the region. They bought the abandoned vineyard in 1969. Here, it is dry, above the fog line, cool yet sunny: perfect for appassimento, aka grape-drying. Continue reading
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Tagged Amarone, Corvina, drink, Galli, grapes, italy, Oak, travel, Valpollicella, verona, wine
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Family Matters: Winery Tour of Trefethen Family Vineyards Oak Knoll Napa Valley California
Go to Napa or read the back of a wine label: most wineries will insist that a family owns them. This selling tactic attempts to ground all the Disney-land glamour onto something parochial and familiar. But family ownership is not unique, roughly 80% of wineries in Napa are. Nor does family ownership ensure smallness or quality. Gallo is a family. So are mafias. Heck, corporations are people these days.
Thus, I visit Trefethen with trepidation. They too point to the Trefethen family’s ownership as a defining feature. But is it? Continue reading
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Tagged bats, beef, cabernet, chardonnay, drink, family, Food, grapes, heritage, Napa Valley, owls, travel, trefethen, wine
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Maui Wine Tour & Review
Wayward Wine has wandered out of its natural element the last few posts. Apologies. We are in Maui. We have tried pineapple and sugar cane spirits at Hali’imaile Distillery (read here), Ocean Vodka (read here), and just toured O’o Coffee Farm (read here).
We learned that Maui’s sugar cane empire collapsed last year. The island has yet to find a viable agricultural alternative. Could wine production save it? California, Oregon, and Washington have found wine a lucrative shift. Could Maui? Continue reading
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Tagged chenin blanc, drink, drinks, grapes, Grenache, Hawaii, malbec, Maui, pineapple, Syrah, travel, wine
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Primitivo for Frozen Days: Castello Monaci
Sick of winter already? Me too. Let us draw the shades, turn up the thermostat, play Hawaiian music, don shorts and a t-shirt and grab a pair of sunglasses. Our wine glass might as well play pretend. I say send it to the hot iron tip of the heal of the boot of Italy: Puglia, specifically Salice Valentino DOC: Continue reading
The 2016 Salmon Bake at IPNC 2016 Pinot Noir Wine Festival Oregon
After rising and falling to the siren song of Pinot Noir for two packed days at IPNC 2016, it all comes to this: The Salmon Bake. This grand open air feast will set you back $225. That sounds like a … Continue reading
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Tagged Beer, Food, grapes, ipnc, Oregon, pinot noir, travel, vino, wine
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