Tag Archives: Pinot Gris

Canadian Bubbly Eh? Averill Creek Vancouver Island Sparkling Wine Review #3

Posted on September 7, 2018 by waywardwine

OK! Ok! So our venture into wines from Vancouver Island VQA’s has drawn up bracingly tart Chardonnay (read here) and wild Gamay (read here). They have been real, reflective, but not great.

Maybe cool climate Burgundy and Beaujolais are not harsh enough models. Let us look to Champagne, to bubbly, to where fizz makes high acid wine magical. Continue reading →

Posted in Sparkling, Uncategorized | Tagged Averill Creek, bubbly, Canada, Champagne, drinks, Pinot Gris, pinot noir, Sparkling wine, Vancouver BC, Vancouver Island | 5 Comments

Golden Oak wins Second Place Judges Choice at Portland’s Willamette Week Pro Am

Posted on October 15, 2016 by waywardwine

So, after pouring their beer for seven hours against 31 other ingenious beers, Tracy’s Golden Oak got second place for Judges’ Choice. Congrats to my brilliant wife, to Danny of Rogue Brewery, and Jesse of Lange Estate Winery for turning … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Barrel, Beer, drinks, Pinot Gris, Portland, proam, wine | 3 Comments

Wine From Vines: Planting my First Vineyard

Posted on April 2, 2015 by waywardwine

So it begins. After years of making wine from bought grapes, finally, finally, I could plant my own vines. It only took buying a home with a quarter acre…minor details… Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Champagne, chardonnay, gardenning, grapes, home wine, pinot blanc, pinot grigio, Pinot Gris, Pinot meunier, plants, riesling, vineyard, wine, winemaking | 7 Comments

Strasbourg Part 2: Historic Wine Cave beneath a Hospice: Cremant and Pinot Gris Grand Cru

Posted on November 17, 2014 by waywardwine

Last Monday’s EU Austerity Drinking Tour landed us in Strasbourg’s Christmas markets, on top of its Cathedral, and enjoying its wine. Today, we descend into the caves of the Hospice de Strasbourg.

As with our visit, not ten days prior, to Burgundy’s Hospice de Beaune, we find Strasbourg had its own, even older medical, religious, wine cellar. Since 1395, cellars beneath the city’s hospital provided wine as medicine and sacrament. Like Beaune, this hospice gained vine-land from guilty proprietors bent on heaven. Although wine-making stalled during the last century, it reformed as a cooperative in 1995. Let’s see what survived the centuries. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alsace, Cave Historique Hospices de Strasbourg, Cremant, France, French wine, Gisselbrecht, Grand cru, hospice de Strasbourg, Kirchberg de Barr, Pinot Gris, Sparkling wine, Strasbourg, travel, Wine Cellar | 1 Comment

Heat Wave Salve: Pine Ridge, Forefront, Pinot Gris, Willamette Valley, Oregon 2011

Posted on May 15, 2014 by waywardwine

This Thirsty Thursday needs to cool it. My car thermometer claimed it hit 93F today…in Oregon…in May! My black, leather seat and I are now one. We’ve already exchanged vows. Slightly worse, my family had to evacuate their home: raging fires swept through Southern California today (ok…that’s far worse).

They’re fine. But we could all use a drink.

Tonight I turn to a native Pinot Gris produced by Pine Ridge. They call this line “Forefront” (I’m sure that sounded brave during marketing meetings…”Oh, now what. we’re Californian. Hey! Let’s make Pinot Gris in Oregon! That cutting-edge sense of adventure will appeal to our Caucasian male, desk-job slave, marketing demographic of 30 to 50 year olds. Genius! Now let’s be indecisive and slap an austere, slick, yet generic label on it”). Continue reading →