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Thursday 01/01/09 - Fruit Wine

A Featured Fruit Wine Article

Stanthorpe - Queenslands Wine Capital

Stanthorpe is a picturesque town known for its amazing national parks, historical buildings and wineries, located on the New England Highway close to the New South Wales border. It has become more popular over the last few years as a tourist destination with so many rural activities and sightseeing options available.

There are a large number of bed and breakfasts if you are stopping over for a night or two, and self contained cottages are available for a longer stay. Black Creek Mountain Cabins are a unique accommodation option, located five minutes south of Stanthorpe.

The locals of Stanthorpe experience the four seasons of the year, which is not common to Queensland. Winter is a fantastic time to visit, and with low temperatures, a popular retreat is in front of a roaring fireplace with local wine and great food. Make sure you pack your scarf and mittens as there is even the occasional snowfall.

With such high altitudes the frosts are perfect for excellent grape harvests, and perfect wines. There are over 50 wineries in the Stanthorpe district on the Granite Belt as well as stone fruit and apple orchards.

There is so much to see and do in Stanthorpe, with vineyards such as Bald Mountain Vineyards, Aventine Wines and Kooroomba Vineyard and lavender farm all deserving a visit. North of Stanthorpe is also the famous Old Caves winery. Winery tours are popular, and each year in August the famous Jazz in the Vineyard is attended by almost 1000 people each year. Opera in the Vineyard, held in May, also promises to be an amazing cultural experience.

In February, the Apple and Grape festival is held every second year, along with the Food and Wine Festival. With Mediterranean food on the main menu and a favourite with the locals, it has all ingredients for a memorable cuisine experience.

You cant miss the Historical Society Museum, located in the town centre, with a shearers hut, preserved school and goal, along with interesting artefacts from the mid 1800's.

The four major national parks surrounding the city provide an unspoilt wilderness beckoning you to drive further on and explore at your own pace. Easily accessible by car, each park offers a contrasting experience.

Girraween National Park is perfect for bushwalkers of all levels, with picturesque walking trails ranging from 25 minutes to six hour hikes. With massive granite rock formations, wildflowers in Spring and eucalypt forests, it is a nature lovers dream. Girraween is easy to find if you take the turnoff from the New England Highway at Wyberba.

Bald Rock National Park is famous for its name, Bald Rock, which is Australia's largest exposed granite rock. With magnificent views, rock formations and bushwalks this park is accessible from the Mt Lindsey Highway, 39 km from Stanthorpe. Camping areas are available.

Boonoo Boonoo National Park is well known for its river system and impressive waterfall. Take a picnic lunch and relax for an afternoon by the rock pool that is above the cascading falls, and surrounded by open forest and lush vegetation.

Sundown National Park is located on the Queensland/New South Wales border. You can leave your car at the entrance of the park and then travel by foot to experience the remote wilderness. There are steep gorges, rainforest and waterways and there are places to picnic, camp, swim and just relax and enjoy the amazing birdlife and beauty of the park. You can also explore the impressive Red Rock Falls, Mt Lofty, Red Rock Gorge and Carpenter Gully.

More than just a stopover, Stanthorpe is a unique and relaxing destination and perfect for your car hire holiday.

Jenny Brewer is a travel agent whose passion is writing. After spending her leisure time writing time writing childrens stories, she now enjoys writing about travel destinations. For more of her articles visit Australia Car Rentals

A Short Fruit Wine Summary

Stanthorpe - Queenslands Wine Capital

Stanthorpe is a picturesque town known for its amazing national parks, historical buildings and wineries, located on the New England Highway close to ...

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8:44 AM

June - Cellar Master

Today's Cellar Master Article

I Love Italian Wine and Food - The Emilia-Romagna Region

Emilia-Romagna stretches from the Ligurian border in northeastern Italy to the Adriatic Sea. As the name indicates, historically it was composed of two regions, Emilia and Romagna. It may be the only region of Italy named for a road, one constructed by the Ancient Romans almost 2200 years ago. It is one of the most prosperous regions of Italy with strong agricultural, industrial, and tourist economic activity. Its total population is about 3.9 million.

Emilia-Romagna produces a very wide variety of pasta, fruits and vegetables, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cheese, and fresh and cured meats. Two of its biggest stars are a cheese, Parmigiano Regianno, and a ham, Prosciutto di Parma. Parmesan cheese as it's known in English, was mentioned by the famous Italian author of the Fourteenth Century, Giovanni Boccaccio. We review it below. Parma ham, as it's known in English, is an uncooked ham that is dry cured for at least ten months. Usually it is served in very thin slices, often as appetizer with melon.

Bologna whose population is about 375,000 is the administrative center of Emilia-Romagna. It is the home of the first university in the Western World, founded in the 11th Century. Bologna is also considered the capital of Italian gastronomy, in spite of its unfortunate association with a low-quality sandwich meat. Another city of interest is Rimini, a resort center on the Adriatic Sea with a population of 135 thousand.

Emilia-Romagna devotes about 178,000 acres to grapevines, it ranks 5th among the 20 Italian regions. Its total annual wine production is about 125 million gallons, giving it a 4th place. About 57% of the wine production is red, leaving 43% for white. The region produces 18 DOC wines. DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata, which may be translated as Denomination of Controlled Origin, presumably a high-quality wine and 1 DOCG white wine, Albana di Romagna. The G in DOCG stands for Garantita, but there is in fact no guarantee that such wines are truly superior. In fact, while this wine was the first white wine to be accorded the DOCG designation in Italy (1987), many feel that Albana di Romagna does not deserve such an award. (I have never tasted this wine, and from the reviews that I've read, I'm in no hurry to taste it.) About 21% of Emilia-Romagna wine carries the DOC or DOCG designation. Emilia-Romagna is home to more than four dozen major and secondary grape varieties, a few more red than white.

Widely grown international white grape varieties include Malvasia and Trebbiano. The best known strictly Italian white varieties are Albana (source of the DOCG wine) and Pignoletto.

Cabernet Sauvignon is the only widely grown international red grape variety. The best known strictly Italian red variety is Bonarda. The Italian red varieties Barbera and Sangiovese are found elsewhere, including California.

Before we reviewing the Emilia-Romagna wine and cheese that we were lucky enough to purchase at a local wine store and a local Italian food store, here are a few suggestions of what to eat with indigenous wines when touring this beautiful region.
Start with Gelato di Parmigiano, Parmigiano "Ice Cream", which includes heavy cream and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, suggested as an appetizer.
A more traditional dish is Scaloppine di Vitello alla Bolognese, Veal Scaloppine all Bolognese, which also includes Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, as well as other local specialties Prosciutto di Parma and balsamic vinegar.
For dessert (as if the ice cream wasn't a dessert) try Torta Bonissima, a Honey and Nut Pie.

OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY While we have communicated with well over a thousand Italian wine producers and merchants to help prepare these articles, our policy is clear. All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.

Wine Reviewed
Donini Lamberti Trebbiano-Chardonnay IGT 2005 12% alcohol about $8 (liter)

Everybody has prejudices. I approached this bottle with several of them. It seems to me that a liter of wine is usually too big, accentuating quantity at the expense of quality. Given the economics of the wine industry, I am usually reticent to purchase a bottle for $8, which would be $6 for a regular-sized bottle. And finally while Emilia-Romagna is often known for its red wines, it is not particularly known for its white wines, with an unfortunate exception, the DOCG wine Albana di Romagna, discussed above. And now to the actual wine.

The first time that I drank this wine I found that its taste was one of green apples, dominating everything else but still light on flavor if not unpleasant. It didn't really accompany the food, a breaded chicken cutlet in sweet and sour sauce with potatoes cooked in chicken fat. As the wine aged a bit, (it takes a long time to finish a liter if you don't care to drink very much at a time) it got better instead of worse. I have read that 3.5 million bottles of this type wine are produced yearly. I understand that it is popular in fish restaurants along the Adriatic Sea. I'd love to find out for sure. Final verdict, not bad for the price.

Parmigiano-Reggiano is a cooked, unpressed semi-fat hard cheese made from raw cow's milk. It is encased in a thin, yellow rind. This cheese is finely grained and very flaky. Its taste is delicate and fragrant, and frankly wasted with a wine of this quality.

About the Author

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but to be honest, he would rather just drink fine Italian or other wine, accompanied by the right foods. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. His wine website is www.theworldwidewine.com . You can reach him at ital@mail.theworldwidewine.com.

A synopsis on Cellar Master.

I Love Italian Wine and Food - The Emilia-Romagna Region

Emilia-Romagna stretches from the Ligurian border in northeastern Italy to the Adriatic Sea. As the name indicates, historically it was composed of tw...

Click Here to Read More About Wine ...

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