National Sparkling Red Day

Did you know that there is a National Sparkling Red Day?! Well this year it was on Tuesday 15th June and I celebrated with a couple of bottles from my lovely friend David's cellar, great company and some gorgeous food!

I do love a sparkling red, especially with food and particularly with cheese. It seemed the perfect accompaniment to a cold Melbourne's evening and we selected a local Italian restaurant, Di Palmas, to celebrate the National Sparkling Red Day. The starter and main that I chose was an amazing goats cheese souffle with red wine poached pears. This light souffle and pears went perfectly with our first wine, I'm practically drooling just thinking about it! For main I went with a pizza with salami, goats cheese, peppers and anchovies. It was a great gutsy and robust meal to have with a sparkling red wine and I actually love to eat pizza with my hands, even in a posh restaurant!

The two sparkling reds that we enjoyed were:

Anderson's of Rutherglen 2000 Sparkling Shiraz and Hollick's 2004 Sparkling Merlot
(click on the wines to get a little more information about them).

The Rutherglen 2000 Sparkling Shiraz was amazing. It had the perfect amount of bubbles, was creamy, a gutsy red but incredibly smooth. It had some great complexities of flavour that you sometimes don't get in a sparkling red and we all agreed that we would try and hunt down some more of this one!

The Hollick's 2004 Sparkling Merlot had an unusual nose and after taste and at first we weren't that in to it but I did warm to it when I had it with food. It unfortunately didn't stand up to the Rutherglen but you often get that, one will appeal more than another wine.

So, when did National Sparkling Red Day start? Well, it is now in it's 19th year with the first annual celebration starting back in 1991. Always held in June, it appears that a secret society of sparkling red wine lovers all come out to enjoy and celebrate their love of the deep red bubbles.

Having been a fan of the 'red bubbles' myself, I can see this celebration becoming an annual tradition for us with our friends who also like to indulge in these gorgeous sparkling reds.

The celebrations don't always have to be big and elaborate but why don't you think about getting some friends together with some lovely simple Italian style foods, a couple of bottles of sparkling red wines and celebrate with us for the 20th National Sparkling Red Day next year?! I know from our experience that this will become an annual get together for us but don't wait till next June to try some great 'red bubbles'!

Women in Wine at MCC

On Wednesday evening I went to my third Women in Wine function at the MCC. This is an annual event where they celebrate women who have made their mark in wine making. This year's winery was Pizzini wines which have an Italian background and are producing wines with an Italian and French flavour.

My favourite wine of the evening was the sparkling Sangiovese rose, which was a fantastic pink bubbly but was quite dry and a little tart in taste. Would make a fabulous substitute to mimosas for a brunch! I'm looking at ordering some of this bubbly so I will add some photos when I do!

We also had an interesting low alcohol wine called Brachetto. I think it's about 5% and is sweet in flavour but still light. Apparently it is great with some ice and pepped up with some Pimm's or even a white rum. Again, I would like to give this a go with some good old Polish Vodka and see what we come up with!

Pizzini winery does several events at their winery throughout the year. I'm very keen to check out the Gnocchi Festival in November so stay tuned for that! For more info on Pizzini wines please visit their website at www.pizzini.com.au and they are located in the King Valley.