Inducted into SA Great Hall of Fame

The team at Rich & Lingering have been at it again. We recently received accolades from both the regional and state tourism awards. Rich & Lingering received a silver medal at the South Australian tourism awards in the Tour Operator category.

For the third year in a row Rich & Lingering was also judged the winner at the SA Great Regional Awards for Tourism Services. The award is recognition of Rich & Lingering’s creativity, professionalism and innovation in the industry. It acknowledges our focus on providing high levels of wine and food knowledge, together with outstanding customer service.

Furthermore to this great honour, Rich & Lingering was also inducted into the SA Great Hall of Fame in recognition of our continued success in the region.

These industry honours and the fantastic feedback we receive from guests, from Australia and all around the world, continue to be great rewards for all the South Australian wine we have to drink… I mean, research carefully.

Barossa Gourmet Weekend 2009

Warming, hearty winter food with world famous wines - the NAB Barossa Gourmet weekend is on again Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd August in the beautiful Barossa Valley. With a winter harvest as the culinary theme, participating wineries will be selecting the best local produce to match with their delicious wines, highlighting the best the Barossa has to offer.

With 22 participating wineries, picturesque views, cosy cellar doors, and great toe-tapping music, there is something for every taste and every age. Exploring new Barossa wineries or visit old favourites, this weekend has something for everyone and incorporates special winemaker breakfasts and dinners along with the well-loved concept of food and wine matching.

The event is child friendly with activities across many wineries to keep the whole family engaged. And don't forget the Barossa's fantastic accommodation to suit all budgets for those who would like to immerse themselves in the whole Barossa experience.

So, shed off the winter blues and warm your senses with great wine, food, music and that famous Barossa hospitality.

Monty Python's Australian Wine Review

A lot of people pooh-pooh Australian table wines. This is a pity as many fine Australian wines appeal not only to the Australian palate but also to the cognoscenti.

Black Stump Bordeaux is rightly praised as a peppermint flavored Burgundy, whilst a good Sydney Syrup can rank with any of the world's best sugary wines.

Château Blue, too, has won many prizes; not least for its taste, and its lingering afterburn.
Old Smokey 1968 has been compared favorably to a Welsh claret, whilst the Australian Wino Society thoroughly recommends a 1970 Coq du Rod Laver, which, believe me, has a kick on it like a mule: eight bottles of this and you're really finished. At the opening of the Sydney Bridge Club, they were fishing them out of the main sewers every half an hour.

Of the sparkling wines, the most famous is Perth Pink. This is a bottle with a message in it, and the message is 'beware'. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.

Another good fighting wine is Melbourne Old-and-Yellow, which is particularly heavy and should be used only for hand-to-hand combat.

Quite the reverse is true of Château Chunder, which is an appellation contrôlée, specially grown for those keen on regurgitation; a fine wine which really opens up the sluices at both ends.

Real emetic fans will also go for a Hobart Muddy, and a prize winning Cuvee Reserve Château Bottled Nuit San Wogga Wogga, which has a bouquet like an aborigine's armpit.

Tempranillo: A Classy & Luscious Red

New to Australia: A young, classy and juicy individual of Mediterranean origin, desperately seeking a quiet dinner for two. Will mature to be a beautiful rich and luscious foodie partner, no walks on the beach necessary.

Spain's classy indigenous Tempranillo is exactly that, early-ripening, red wine grape which makes juicy wines for drinking young, but can mature well in a rich, sometimes oaky style.

Tempranillo (pronounced Temp-rah-NEE-yo) is a grape variety that puts the spine into a high proportion of Spain's respected reds and is the most widely planted grape variety in the superstar Rioja region in the rugged north-east of the country. It is a hearty, robust wine with light tannins and great acidic structure, which matches excellently with food.

Tempranillo has a level of versatility other grapes can only envy. It's thick-skinned and capable of making deep-coloured, long-lasting wines. As a single variety wine it typically exhibits a generous mix of flavours – strawberry, dark cherries, tobacco or a herbal character, vanilla and spice. But it can also be blended with Grenache (also know as Garnacha in Spain) or Cabernet Sauvignon to produce provide a little more tannin support.

In South Australia, which has a similar Mediterranean climate, the variety has been planted here over the past decade with great success. McLaren Vale has always been a region ready to try innovative approaches and varieties. This is no exception with a number of classy Tempranillo wines produced by Gemtree Vineyards, Mr Riggs, Cascabel, and Olivers Taranga. In the Barossa Valley Yalumba, and Peter Lehmann Wines are well known wineries, and even in the cooler Adelaide Hills Nepenthe Wines produce one.

A food wine, it works well with game, sausages, casseroles and lamb. Perfect for those winter comfort meals and, of course, traditional Spanish dishes, - think chorizo sausage tapas.

There comes a time when you need to discover something new, otherwise it could be a long lonely winter.

Sweet Child O' Wine

Adrian North, Head of Applied Psychology at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh has discovered that music influences taste. Specifically, he discovered that listening to powerful, heavy music makes wine seem richer and heavier.

One of the tests in the study involved people tasting Cabernet Sauvignon and listening to Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses. The test subjects reported that the wine tasted 60% more robust when the music was played. The research has a few excited entrepreneurs exploring the option of music matching suggestions on wine labels and music menus in restaurants.

Rest assured that Brazilian Speed-Metal will not become the selected music on Rich & Lingering's Barossa Shiraz Tour.

2008 South Australian Wine Vintage

Absolutely perfect – right up to the point when it all went pear shaped!

A record heat wave across South Australia, right in the middle of vintage lead, to temperatures of at least 35 for 15 straight days. This caused any fruit still on the vine to ripen very suddenly. Sugar levels went through the roof – 15, 16 baume, 18, 20, 22 baume. Sometimes jumping a couple of degrees in a day. Everything ripened at once, from the early ripening varieties through to the late.

Consequently everyone was trying to get their fruit off the vines and into the winery. Not only were pickers even more difficult to get hold of than usual, but most wineries were at full capacity, with a two week delay before they could accept any more fruit. Fruit stayed on the vine, becoming ultra ripe. A two month vintage suddenly become a two to three week event.

It will be a great year for fortified wines – and they won’t need to be fortified with brandy spirit. Look out for some big wines, with high alcohol.

Up to that point, everything was going fantastically. With half the fruit in across South Australia’s premium wine regions, it was going to be an early vintage again. The yields were likely to be slightly below average, making it easy for the vines to ripen what was there. Warm dry conditions lead to little disease pressure. The quality was expected to be very good.

So wines from fruit before the heatwave will be great, wines from after the heatwave will be great for Mr Parker.

Wine Australia's Tasting Challenge

A website challenging consumers to show off their knowledge of wine has been launched by Wine Australia. Described as “virtual wine tasting”, The Regional Heroes Tasting Challenge has been designed to assist you to learn more about wine.

You can pick a wine and select the appropriate characteristics to describe it. You will then receive a score, and tasting notes for that particular wine and what can be expected from that region. The website is http://www.wineaustralia.com/regionalheroes/

Wine Australia aims to build peoples awareness of Australia's wine regions and inform consumers about an Australian sense of place and particular flavour, or style of wine. Its a quick way to learn more about Australia regional styles.

Finding Fiano Fantastic?

Hmmm, its nice, it unusual...
Forever on the search for the interesting, the challenging and the down right enjoyable, we have started a new column on what we are currently drinking.

2007 Coriole Fiano – Fiano is a new white grape variety to South Australia. Originally coming from Avellino in south west Italy. This is the second commercial release by Coriole, who are based in McLaren Vale. We know of only two other producers making it; Parish Hill, in the Adelaide Hills, and Olivers Taranga also in McLaren Vale.

This particular release has a light pale colour, intense aroma, with a consistently intense and rich (somewhat savoury) palate of toasted nuts and melons. In the mouth its has a similar feel to Viognier — full and rich. Lovely balanced acidity. Fantastic with robust seafood dishes, like a squid ink risotto.

Barossa Valley Wine Tour

No matter where in the world you travel, you can be certain to find a bottle of wine from the Barossa Valley in a bottle store. Whether you are in Giggleswick, (North Yorkshire, England) or Greymouth (New Zealand) the Barossa brand is internationally known.

It is home to some of Australia’s biggest and best known wineries, including Jacob’s Creek, Wolf Blass, and Seppelt to name but a few. The region accounts for 21% of Australia’s total wine production. But more importantly, it is also home to a wide range of boutique wineries, which, to get the full benefit of require an experienced and educated guide.

The Barossa Valley was settled in 1840’s by both English settlers and German immigrants who were fleeing religious persecution. They brought with them a culture of growing, cooking, and preserving, along with an ethic of working hard for what they wanted.

What has remained to the current day is Barossa’s enduring nature. This is due to its breadth of growers and producers. From the multinationals, through to the garagist wine producers who only produce a single label. They have captured their heritage, amalgamated it with ‘modern Australia’ and used it as a foundation for further development. A visit to the Barossa region is interesting on so many levels — architecture, horticulture, character, wine, and food.

The European influence is pervasive, from mouth watering metwursts (Linke’s Meat Store and Schulz Butchers), cheeses (from Ballycroft and Barossa Valley Cheese Co), and the bakeries (such as Apex Bakery or Lyndoch Bakery) with various types of Streusel cake and Bienenstich. It is a foodies heaven!

Viticulturally the Barossa Valley has the world's oldest Shiraz vineyards, some dating back to the 1840s. The Barossa Valley extends from Lyndoch in the south to Kalimna, Moppa, and Ebenezer in the northwest, at an elevation of 200 to 300 metres above sea level. Immediately to the east is Eden Valley which is at a higher elevation of 500 to 600 metres. It is much cooler than the valley floor and produces delightfully floral Rieslings.

Barossa Valley has a Mediterranean climate, characterised by cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers where temperatures are generally between 30C and 35C. It is a reliable grape growing area particularly suited to producing riper, bolder wines, and particularly full-bodied shiraz. It also grows a range of Rhone varieties such as Viognier, Mourvedre (also know as Mataro), and Grenache.

Go on visit Barossa Valley — gratify the senses!