Tasting Australia 2010

Tasting Australia will return to Adelaide in May 2010. It is held every two years in Adelaide to celebrate the very best Australia has to offer in food, wine and beer. Tasting Australia is designed for the nation's food and hospitality industry, local and international media and the passionate public.

British TV personalities, including a Ladette to Lady teacher, are among the international celebrities who will take part in Adelaide's Tasting Australia. Ladette to Lady cookery teacher Rosemary Shrager also presents Rosemary Shrager's School for Cooks. Italian chef and cookery writer Antonio Carluccio will make his third visit to the event.

The international celebrities will join a smorgasbord of Australian chefs, writers and TV presenters, including Maeve O'Meara, Stephanie Alexander and Simon Bryant.

Tasting Australia began 11 years ago to gain further worldwide recognition for South Australia as a food and wine centre of excellence. The past Tasting Australia was in 2007 but a change from spring to autumn means a stretch until 2010 for the next one, which runs from April 29 to May 6. The full program for Tasting Australia 2010 has been unveiled, and will include at least 40 public events for food, wine and beer lovers.

On the May 1-2 weekend a free event (the BankSA Feast for the Senses) will take over Elder Park on the banks of the Torrens River. This will include cooking shows and a chance for young chefs to work with the stars. Tasting Australia offers everyone who simply loves good food and wine the opportunity to enjoy the very best in South Australia while mixing with some of the world's culinary icons.

Rich & Lingering will be providing private tours for visitors, so they can get out into the regions to experience the best of the state and take full advantage of their visit to Tasting Australia.

Lance Armstrong's Wine Tour Down Under

Cycling legend Lance Armstrong helped expose five South Australian wine regions to a daily audience of more than 200 million people last week as viewers from around the world watched coverage of the Tour Down Under. The cycling race, which is the first event of the year on the International Union of Cyclists (ICU) Pro Tour calendar, attracted global television coverage which featured many South Australian wine regions.

The tour began with a Clare to Barossa Valley stage, traversed the Adelaide Hills on three days and passed through Langhorne Creek with the penultimate stage of Saturday covering McLaren Vale. Organisers estimate that almost one million people lined the route.

Leading industry figures have welcomed the international coverage, saying that the cycling event was helping to recognise Australia's wine regions. 'One of the big criticisms of Australian wine is that it's not wine from a place,' said the chairman of the McLaren Vale Grape Wine and Tourism Association, Dudley Brown. 'We're now getting feedback from around the world from people who've seen the region.'

The Tour Down Under has attracted visitors from all over Australia and the rest of the world. Cycling being the main drawcard, (with Lance Armstrong, Cadel Evans, and many more international stars attending) along with South Australia's sensational food and wine, and diverse scenery.

Shaw & Smith's Michael Hill Smith said the event reaffirmed the face of Australia as a wine producer with very attractive wine regions. Launched 12 years ago, the event gained ICU status last year when the US's Lance Armstrong used it to start a comeback to cycling.

The Tour Down Under was won by Andre Greipel from team HTC Columbia . Lance Armstrong (Radioshack) came 25th in the General Classification, and sensational newcomer Arthur Vichot (Francaise de Jeux) came 48th.

Parker rates Grange

Penfolds Grange has again been recognised as one of the world's greatest wines, with influential US critic Robert Parker awarding its latest vintage a score of 99 out of 100. Parker was credited with lifting Grange to superstar status when he named the 1990 vintage the greatest red in the world, but even that wine was given only 94 points.

The 99 points he awarded to the latest release, the 2004 vintage, has been beaten only once -- by the 1976 vintage -- and equalled only by the 1986. "It will ultimately be seen as one of the greatest vintages of Grange," Parker wrote in his review of the 2004.

Andrew Caillard, auctioneer with wine auction house Langton's, said that although Parker was no longer as influential as he was during the 1990s, his seal of approval had the power to boost demand and therefore the price. "Grange is the most important Australian wine at auction and any of these types of endorsements just underpin its performance," Mr Caillard said.

Rich & Lingering can incorporate a Taste of Grange into their private tours in Barossa Valley. The current release of Grange 2004, can be enjoyed along with other iconic Penfolds lables, such as RWT and Bin707.