One thing is for sure: Elgin is ready to receive its share of Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

Literally tons of clothes, food, personal hygiene items, toys, school supplies, bottled water and other survival items have piled up at donation drop-off sites throughout the city since word spread earlier this week that hundreds of evacuees would be coming to the Elgin Mental Health Center.

A Taste of Australian Wine
'Sparkling Reds'
by Gavin Trott

Sparkling red wines, or as they used to be known in Australia - Sparkling Burgundies, are a particular love of mine. I’m not sure about the US experience, but many in Australia were turned off these wines due to drinking light red concoctions tasting like sweet lolly water sold here in the 1960’s and 1970’s with names like “Cold Duck”. These usually tasted like a blend of cough mixture and boiled lollies and have put a generation off what are very traditional Australian wine styles that are indeed world class.

So what are we talking about with Sparkling red wines from Australia? Well, we are talking about quality red wines made in the same way as Champagne - that is, bottle fermented, aged on lees, then liqueured and left to develop in the bottle. However, instead of using Chardonnay and Pinot as the base wines, they use quality red wines.

These styles exist elsewhere in the world, notably in the Burgundy and Loire regions of France, but not in any quantity, or with the same quality. Only here in Australia do these tend to be taken seriously, indeed they are very much in fashion currently, and the range and variety are now truly exceptional.

What should you expect from these wines?
Well, imagine tilting an empty glass and pouring ... down the side runs a frothy liquid, vivid purple in color with violet and purple froth. Roaring out of the glass comes the smell of blackcurrants, blackberries, chocolate, cherries, strawberries and more. You finish pouring and slowly the froth settles into purple red wine with a steady mousse. Another sniff now shows hints of oak, sweet fruit and firm acid. Try some .... powerful fruit, dry yet seeming sweet, some acid and tannin on the finish as the flavours run over your tongue, berries, mushroom, spice, cherries and more. Makes me thirsty just writing about it!

What are these wines made from?
Well these days just about anything red. Most, and I think the best, are made from Shiraz. All that chocolate and rich smoky blackberry fruit just seems to suit the wine style. At one extreme we have the almost impossibly rare Rockford Black Shiraz. In the early days at least this wine started off life as a quality 10 year old Barossa Shiraz before Rocky took to it with the fizz. Also try the Rumball which uses 100% Coonawarra Shiraz, or the Leasingham, using the same Clare Shiraz as their classy table wines do.

Some people are making this wine from Cabernet too, notably Yalumba, and most successful it is too, lighter in style than the Shiraz, but not light. After this we have some beautiful Sparkling Merlot, notably the Irvine. One or two make a sparkling Pinot Noir like McWilliams and then we have the something different wines, Tatachilla make a brightly coloured Sparkling Malbec and D'Arenberg have just released their Sparkling Chambourcin.

How do we drink these wines?
These Sparkling Shiraz wines should be served slightly chilled. Naturally this depends on the conditions. If its summer and you want them with a barbeque for example, 30 – 40 minutes in the refrigerator helps them, it stops them seeming flabby and over alcoholic. However, if its mid winter then room temperature will do fine. In short, don’t overchill, or serve warm.

What do we drink these wines with?
Well, they are fantastic with your favorite pizza, served slightly chilled. They also drink wonderfully with Turkey particularly the sparkling Cabernet, and naturally also for barbeques where they hold their own. Added to this are any of the meat dishes that Shiraz style wines go with.

If you like experimenting, then try them also with Duck, char grilled Tuna, in fact, most meats char grilled. The lighter styles also make excellent aperitifs particularly on colder nights.

What sparkling red wines should I try?

Inexpensive
Andrew Garrett
Hardys Sparkling Shiraz

Middle range
Mt Prior Sparkling Durif
Tatachilla Sparkling Malbec
Rumball

Premium
Rockford Black Shiraz
Great Western
Charles Melton Sparkling Shiraz
Leasingham Classic Clare
Irvine Sparkling Merlot
Henrys Drive Sparkling Shiraz

Gavin is the manager of the Australian Wine Centre (a large collection of affordable, rare and cult Australian wines) and hosts the very popular Auswine Forum (An online discussion forum about Australian wine) . You may reprint this article either on a website or in print but you must maintain this resource section naming the author. Please email the author with details on where you intend to use it. You can obtain the latest version of this article and more free wine content for your website from www.freesticky.com

A Taste of Australian Wine
'Muscats and Tokays of the Rutherglen Region'
by Gavin Trott

I must begin by stating a bias, these wines are absolutely individual, world class and at their best, ASTONISHING. I make no attempt at being unbiased when describing them. If I get even close to their unique style, incredible complexity and great age, if I make you want to run out and buy some, then I have accomplished my goal! The complex flavours, the length, the age and the mouthfilling qualities of these wines put Bordeaux, Burgundy, indeed most other wines other than perhaps Vintage Ports and Madeira to shame.

So how are these astonishing wines made, and what are they made from?
The answer to both questions is deceptively simple. Each wine is a style not a variety and each is made from a different grape. Muscat is made from a brown coloured type of the grape Muscat a Petits Grains known locally as Brown Muscat, and Tokay is made from Muscadelle, a grape better known for a small role in the sweet wines of Bordeaux. In both cases the grapes are grown in this hot sun drenched region and allowed to hang on the vine long after the table grapes are ripe, soaking up that heat, turning it into sugar, and then concentrating this sugar and the acid as the grape shrivels. In this way the grapes often reach 16-20 degrees Baume (each degree Baume roughly equates to one % alcohol after fermentation) quite naturally which means the resultant wine will be both sweet and rich.

The grapes are then picked and crushed. This in itself is a difficult job due to the raisined grapes and intense sugar levels. Next comes the fermentation, the use of yeast to turn the sugar into alcohol. Many makers, Chambers included, do not even start fermenting some wines (Tokay) or in very ripe years. Either way, the short fermentation is stopped rather like Port by the addition of high quality brandy spirit which kills the yeast leaving all that rich sugary sweetness and flavour.

The next step involves time and patience. The young wine is cleaned then put into oak barrels of varying sizes to age and develop. No new oak is used for this process as the added flavour would not work with the wine, in fact, most of the makers feel that the older the oak the better. Most of these wineries are full of a myriad of barrels of varying sizes and some of great age. The rest of the process is time.

What happens now is controlled oxidation. Over time, lots of time, small amounts of air get in through the oak to affect the wine, and through these same very small openings tiny amounts of the wines evaporate (locally this evaporated liquid is known as the "angel's share"). The effect is three fold:

Colour
The oxidation causes colour and flavour changes in the wine. Muscat when young is reddish brown but time and oxygen turns it brown, then eventually olive green, particularly on the rim. Tokay starts out lighter with golden tints but follows the same pattern with very old Muscat and Tokay looking quite similar.

Texture
Given the loss through evaporation both wines become noticeably thicker, even oily. In fact, very old wines, and there are some as old as 100 years and more, look and have the texture of Treacle or Molasses.

Flavour
Time adds to the complexity of the wines with older wines showing many aromas and flavours that were not present in the young wines. Most noticeable among these is 'rancio', a term much used with Sherries and Ports and which means, at least as well as I can explain it, a mixture of volatility and other substances (aldehydes for the chemists amongst us) which stop the sweet wine from smelling and tasting over sweet or cloying. In fact, all the flavours concentrate and intensify until older wines are quite literally explosive in the mouth.

So what can I expect from Muscat and Tokay?
Muscat has an aroma that can be described as fruity, with smells of grape, raisins, orange peel, rancio brandy spirit and more plus a palate including incredibly intense sweetness, and many other flavours that I can't find words for.
Tokay has all of these plus a characteristic flavour and aroma from the Muscadelle grape that has been described as cold tea, fish oil, or malt extract, all right, but all wrong ... you'll need to try the wine to know what I mean.

Producers to watch for
Chambers Rosewood
Morris
Stanton and Killeen
Baileys
Campbells
Brown Brothers
All Saints

Wines to try
Chambers Liqueur Muscat and Tokay (younger)Very Old Liqueur Muscat and Tokay (very special, very, very old)
Morris Canister Series (younger) or Old Premium Liqueur (older)
Stanton and Killeen Special Old Liqueur
Baileys Warby and Founder Range (younger) and Winemakers Selection (older)
Campbells Merchant Prince
Brown Brothers
All Saints Lyrebird Range

I once was privileged enough to try some 100 year old Muscat from Chambers. It was so dark and thick you almost could not pour it! It looked like treacle and in the mouth was explosive, almost searing in its intensity and the flavour stayed with me for ages, longer than any other wine experience. It is this wine, when blended in with medium and fresher wine, that makes these old blends so sensational to try.

Gavin is the manager of the Australian Wine Centre (a large collection of affordable, rare and cult Australian wines) and hosts the very popular Auswine Forum (An online discussion forum about Australian wine) . You may reprint this article either on a website or in print but you must maintain this resource section naming the author. Please email the author with details on where you intend to use it. You can obtain the latest version of this article and more free wine content for your website from www.freesticky.com

A Taste of Australian Wine
'Rieslings'
by Gavin Trott

Riesling is the grape most associated with Germany, where the best examples of it are stunning, world class wines. Here in Australia we are probably the only other country to give this fabulous grape the care and attention it deserves. Indeed, for many years it was the most popular Australian white wine, only recently suc*censored*bing to the world wide fashion trend of Chardonnay. To me it still produces more good wines, and perhaps more to the point, less bad wines, than Chardonnay.

A Taste of Australian Wine
'Cabernet Sauvignon'
by Gavin Trott

Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's finest red wine grapes. From Bordeaux to California and increasingly in Italy and even Chile, Cabernet makes great red wines. Australia is no exception making great Cabernet in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and the Hunter Valley.

A Taste of Australian Wine
'Shiraz'
by Gavin Trott

This is Australia’s highest profile wine style, and arguably its best red wine. The grape is believed to have come to Australia first from its home, Hermitage in the Rhone area of France many years ago. Some believe, again arguably, that due to extensive re-planting in France due to Phylloxera, our older vineyards are more like Hermitage used to be, than that region is today. Some vineyards of Chateau Tahbilk for instance date back over 100 years unchanged (and small amounts of wine are still made from these old grapes.)

A Taste of Australian Wine
'The Barossa Valley'
by Gavin Trott

There wouldn't be much doubt that if I asked people around the world to name just one Australian wine region, most would say "The Barossa Valley".

While traveling the southern states we stopped at a hotel that was hell. For your info we are not cheap. We first stopped at a hotel that had barb wire around it. We passed that one bye, the next one wanted our first born for a room. The third one was 15 miles down the road, It was reasonable priced, but when we got in the room it was a unmaintained hell. The door was a standard keyed lock, which really didn't make a diference because the door was ready to fall off the hinges. The light fixtures were falling off the wall and were wired like a child did it. Holes in the walls. Soap from one hotel, invoice from another and towels from yet another.



The hotel in this story was the Payless Inn located at Nashville, TN.

My love is the love I feel,
The way I feel love is only true love,
Girls that I go out with tell me within one week they love me,
This is wrong,
You can't judge love and lust within this time period,
I believe true love is something that hits you right away,
But you can't always tell the difference between love and lust right away,
I'm Different,
I can tell the difference between love and lust,
I don't try and say it is something else,
Maybe you may call this being insensitive,
I don't call it this,
I call it telling the truth,
That is how I'm different,
I'm honest,
I won't lie to you just to let you hear what you want to hear,
I will tell you the truth,
If I love you I'll tell you so,
If I don't I won't lie to you,
This is the way my love works,
I don't say it is the way yours should be,
But if it is I praze you.

Eric McCarthy