All About Wine And Its Goodness!

It’s Friday and lunchtime is fast approaching. It’s been a very long week at work, quite stressful and really, really busy.

I am now counting down the hours to the weekend and that will mean a a few bottles of wine will be consumed.

Well if the truth be told, it’s normally a few bottles on a Friday, then a few more on Saturday and unfortunately just the one on Sunday. Unfortunately I have to be up bright and early for work on Monday, ready for another busy week at the office.

I am still a bit of an amateur when it comes to choosing the right wine and I will admit to sometimes getting it wrong. I know every now and then I serve a white when it should be a red.

For Friday’s dinner I was thinking about dishing up a nice cut of steak. To accompany this I think I should be choosing a nice Cabernet Sauvignon. However my predicament is I am an absolute lover of any sort of Shiraz, so perhaps I should get a couple of bottles of this.

I am organising a nice buffet at my house this Saturday as we are having a family party. I find that when I host a party at my house my family never seem to bring their own wine with them, so I always end up having to get extra supplies in. My absolute favourite wine is Cava, so I will definately buy some of this. My dilemma will be should I get Rosado Cava or Reserve Cava, or perhaps, as it’s a big event, I should just get a case of each.

On Sunday night it will just be the two of us and I think after such a heavy weekend of drinking that we will probably just snuggle on the settee with a cup of tea.

Well that sounds like another weekend done and dusted. It will soon be Monday morning again, which means the alarm will be buzzing nice and early ready for another stressful week at work.  Oh roll on Friday.

The Barossa is famous for its red wine and it is in this region where Shiraz reigns supreme. Penfolds Grange, Australia’s most famous wine, uses a large percentage of the Shiraz from the Barossa. Henschke Hill of Grace, another high profile Australian wine, also uses Barossa Shiraz in its production.

The Barossa is located north of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. Something that surprises many people is that the Barossa actually encompasses two regions – the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley.

The Barossa Valley is generally less than 400 metres above sea-level and stretches from Williamstown in the south to Kapunda and Truro in the north. The rainfall here can be up to 50% less than in Eden Valley however The Barossa has the advantage of more fertile red-brown soil.  Temperatures are generally about 2ºC warmer.

The Eden Valley region starts from the north at Truro and goes all the way south, down to Mount Pleasant. On average the land ranges from about 400 to 600 metres above sea level with a majority of the wine growing land located in the higher sections of land. Eden Valley has much rockier, acidic soil than the Barossa Valley and also enjoys about 255mm more rainfall every year. Growing seasons in this region are longer due to the cooler temperatures.

So how does this affect the wine from these regions? Well to put it simply, these are great growing conditions.

There are about 550 growers in the Barossa, some of them sixth-generation Barossans.  The total harvest each season adds up to a whopping 55,000 tonnes of grapes which has been grown over 8,000 hectares of land.
A unique aspect about the Barossa is that it has managed to avoid phylloxera By avoiding phylloxera this has allowed growers to keep their root stocks and have some of the oldest vines in the world today.

While the Barossa’s 55,000 tonnes represents only about 5% of the national crush, it is premium fruit. Wines produced in the Barossa have a disproportionately high representation in the super-premium category, making it one of Austrlia’s most influential international wines.

Its easy to see why Barossa Shiraz is held in high regard amongst wine connoisseurs.

Follow the link for more information on Barossa Valley Shiraz .

There are a great number of different wines available – many more than you may have even imagined. If you’d like to find out more about how to match up different wines with your food, then a good place to start is with some of the more popular wine varieties before you start to explore more esoteric grapes.

Oh, and before we get started, if you love to try new wines, then you can’t go wrong with a wine of the month club, they’re fun and you’re always expanding your wine palate.

Let’s take a look at some of the more popular wine varieties:

Cabernet Sauvignon

Often abbreviated to the less-than-lovely name ‘cab-sav’, the flavorful cabernet sauvignon is a classic French wine that is one of the most widely recognized red wine varieties.

This full-bodied red wine blend can be the ideal accompaniment to a fine steak, a roast lamb or on its own as a drinking red wine.

Merlot

Merlot should ideally be a very soft red wine that is also quite rich without the high tannin levels of other reds. Whether on its own or blended with a great cab-sav, merlot is lovely served with chicken or can an excellent drinking red wine.

Shiraz

Also known as Syrah, Shiraz is a deep red colored, medium bodied wine whose flavor includes hints of black pepper and berries. This is one of the best wines to go with barbecue as well as many other meat dishes. Shiraz can be aged for a long time and improves well with age.

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