Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome again to this week’s newsletter announcement for this Friday’s Tasting!  This week we’re visiting the wines from our neighbors to the South! The far-far-South. Nope. . .even farther South than that. Yep, and pretty far East as well. That’s right! It’s the wines of Australia! It’s a powerhouse of a wine industry making a powerful wines!

I had heard, some time ago, that Australia had surpassed Italy in wine exports. This seemed to be quite a feat, considering the fact that Italy is one giant vineyard. (Okay, that’s not a FACT. . .consider it a theory). We’ve all seen plenty of inexpensive wines coming out of Australia, too. They do have plenty of bang-for-the-buck (read: plonk), with plenty of under-$10 wines that don’t taste like something that would be better used to clean engine parts. Australia is great for this, but we end up seeing endless amounts of the same cookie-cutter wines: shiraz, chardonnay, shiraz, chardonnay. . .

So I’ve collected here a few of the more interesting Aussie wines, with a bit more emphasis on the whites considering the dog-days of summer we’re entrenched in at the moment. We’ve got on the schedule a Chardonnay/Viognier, a Marsanne/Viognier and a Semillon in the perfectly cool white wine section and a nicely chilled Sparkling Shiraz to perk things up a bit. And we finish the tasting off with some big reds since, after all, that’s what the Aussies are best known for! (Paul Hogan, Russell Crowe and Midnight Oil notwithstanding.) (Oh, yeah. . .and that Road Warrior movie. That was great!)

So Friday, August 12th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Aussie Wines!
Southern Roo 2004 Chardonnay/Viognier, Barossa & Clare Valleys, South Australia
Rutherglen Estates 2004 Marsanne/Viognier, Rutherglen, Victoria
Brokenwood 2004 Semillon, Hunter Valley, New South Wales
Hill of Content 2002 Grenache/Shiraz, Clare Valley, South Australia
Mt. Langi Ghiran 2001 Billi Billi Shiraz, Victoria

More Aussie!!
Fox Creek NV Vixen Sparkling Shiraz/Cabernet Franc, McLarren Vale, South Australia
Two Hands 2003 Shiraz “Gnarly Dudes”, Barossa, South Australia

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, and $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Viognier!

M