Tag Archives: grapes

Looking Beyond Local #MWWC12 Troon, Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Applegate Valley, Oregon 2008

Posted on October 16, 2014 by waywardwine

We in the West with more money than sense have made religion out of things local. Like buying indulgences, that carrot at your farmer’s market or grandma’s un-labeled jam makes us feel like we have done our part.

Delicious or dangerous, buying local frees us of our carbon-footprint guilt.

OK, directing money back into the native economy slices out the middle-person. Yes, things grown from the same soil, sun, waters, and hands tend to synchronize well with similar products (see terroir). Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged #mww12, Applegate Valley, grapes, Herb Quady, local, local wine, mwwc12, Oregon, oregon wine, pinot noir, siskiyou range, terroir, troon, troon vineyards, wine | 9 Comments

Beaune Vineyards: EU Austerity Drinking Tour: Nuiton-Beaunoy, Burgundy, France

Posted on October 6, 2014 by waywardwine

After much delay, our EU Austerity Drinking Tour continues. 131 continuous days of travel, drinking, eating, and drinking our way through Europe has worn us out. But somehow, we keep striving in Burgundy. Today, we visit Beaune: wine capital of Bourgogne and possibly the world: Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Beaune, Bourgogne, Burgundy, France, grapes, Hautes-Côtes de Beaune, Nuiton-Beaunoy, pinot noir, Tour, vineyards, wine | 5 Comments

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 Freixenet, grapes, Penedes, Serra Del Garraf, Spain, travel, wine | 1 Comment

Suburban Vineyard: Finding Haut-Brion in Bordeaux’s Pessac-Léognan

Posted on March 17, 2014 by waywardwine

It is our last day in Bordeaux. We had visited Graves and St-Émilion. But we have yet to see Pessac-Léognan.

medoc-map-2010In 1855 Bordeaux merchants ranked the top houses. Of the Premier Grand Cru (best of the best), all were in the Médoc save one in Pessac-Léognan. Now we could debate the validity of an 164 year-old classification, but Pessac was just a bus ride from our apartment.

Famed wine-focused (and graffito-tagged) Bordeaux University passes us by.

We get off the bus and hike, expecting suburbia to turn into farmland. It doesn’t. Just past a gas station and apartment we find this: Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1855, 1855 Classification, Bordeaux, grapes, Haut-Brion, Medoc, Pessac-Léognan, vines, Winery | 4 Comments

Getting Dirty in Graves: Château la Croix

Posted on January 27, 2014 by waywardwine

We pick up last Monday’s EU Austerity Drinking Tour post south of Bordeaux, sick, but thirsty. Our free, Open Doors, van tour of Graves had started decently. Château Pont de Brion let us taste a mini-enprimeur of 2012’s just-harvested varietals. They were tidy, well-branded, but too clean to be outstanding. Then I kicked a dog (accidentally), and they kicked us out.

Today, our van bounces to its next stop: Château la Croix.

The word Châteaux clearly gets applied to anything in Bordeaux. A child plays with gravel in the driveway. A stable-winery glares orange. The center tree shades a large, black dog who greets with a lazy bark.

But superficiality be damned. We came for wine, not glamor. Our van clatters off, leaving us and three, twenty-something ladies in the parking lot. Continue reading →