Tag Archives: wine

Vancouver 5: Lulu Island Winery, New China, and the Gulf of Georgia Cannery

Posted on January 19, 2015 by waywardwine

Wayward Wine continues its search for local wine in British Columbia.

So we drive South of Vancouver to Richmond. Rain pours outside. What better way to start a wet day than inside a Cannery museum? Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bc, Canada, chardonnay, China, Fruit wine, icewine, LuLu Island Winery, muscat, Okanagan Valley, Richmond, Shiraz, VQA, wine | 1 Comment

Vancouver Visit 3: Pacific Culinary Institute and Cassini Cellars, Pinot Noir

Posted on January 8, 2015 by waywardwine

Out of desperation, we reserved lunch for Half Off Wine Wednesday. Online research found, finally, that wines equaled BC winery prices (albeit still twice US retail). More importantly, the Pacific Culinary Institute sourced food locally. The food should meld well … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bc, Canada, Cassini Cellars, Okanagan Valley, Pacific Culinary Institute, pinot noir, Vancouver, wine | 4 Comments

Hunting for Mozart in Salzburg and Zweigelt Red Wine from Nittnaus, Burgenland, Austria

Posted on December 29, 2014 by waywardwine

Our second day out in Salzburg includes a visit to Mozart’s Wohnhause, where he grew up.

But entry costs a fortune. Instead, we end up spending over an hour in the house’s research library enjoying a Mozart primer narrated by Kenneth Branagh for free.

Swimming in Classical music and Mozart’s love-hate (really hate) relationship with Salzburg, we pop over to his birthplace: Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Austria, Burgenland, Mozart, Nittnaus, Salzburg, wine, Zweigelt | 6 Comments

Scheurebe Wine from Bruder Dr Becker, Rheinessen, Munich, Germany

Posted on December 15, 2014 by waywardwine

With the holidays in full swing, we need to escape from the joy/stress of shopping, family/work parties. So Wayward Wine will up posts EU Austerity Drinking Tour in the following weeks.

Last Monday’s post, Munich’s Residenz palace managed to glow through winter. We slighted some rather nice beer (mainly out of frustration with the monopoly of big producers). So let us give Germanic wine a chance.

Munich lacks water bodies to make wine this deep into the continent. So this white comes of the steep banks of the Rein, in the heart of Germany’s western wine country: the Rheinhessen: Continue reading →

Posted in EMPTIED BOTTLES, Riesling | Tagged Brüder Dr. Becker, Germany, Kabinett, Rhein river, Rheinhessen, riesling, scheurebe, wine | 2 Comments

Serendipity: Biodynamics -vs- Wines from Jura #MWWC13

Posted on December 4, 2014 by waywardwine

Serendipity provides the lucky theme for this 13th Monthly Wine Writing Challenge. So, what role does fortuitous chance play in wine? Well, one theory thinks we can control nature’s chaos: biodynamics.

Logo DemeterImagine organic wine-making on astrological steroids, based, weirdly, on lectures given by Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s. I won’t bore you, but biodynamics looks at a vineyard as a whole ecosystem tied to celestial phenomenon and proscribes rituals to better enhance sustainability and produce. Intriguing…

However, bio-ists also latch their lunar planting calendar to a wine tasting calender (no really). 1st century Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder said the moon “replenishes the earth; when she approaches it, she fills all bodies, while, when she recedes, she empties them.” In theory, wine lives, and moon phases effect it just like living plants. Now wine certainly evolves and changes chemically with time and oxygen exposure, but to consider it “living” is like believing in zombies: those grapes aren’t growing anytime soon.

But can this (pseudo) science really predict chance? If we can calculate and plan our pleasure: “today is a leaf day, I shall avoid wine for maximum delight!” does it rob us the joy of surprise? Can we control serendipity?

Continue reading →