McLaren Vale Wine Varieties...
Notable for producing Shiraz, the grape is by far the most important variety for the region, accounting for about 50% of the total crush. The area’s thin soils, limited water, and warm summers harness Shiraz’s natural vigor and produce intense flavored fruit, and wine with a deep purple color that can last decades in the bottle.
McLaren Vale wines are distinguished by their ripeness, elegance, structure, power and complexity. McLaren Vale has 3,218 hectares of Shiraz under vine. Other major varieties include Cabernet Sauvignon with 1,288 ha planted, Chardonnay with 722 ha planted and Grenache with 402 ha- much of this dry-grown (non-irrigated) bush vines. (Statistics taken from the Phylloxera and Grape Industry Board’s vineyard register as of May 2005.)
Shiraz is harvested from late February to early April. McLaren Vale Shiraz displays pronounced berry and spice characters with some dark chocolate and liquorice, while Shiraz from cooler sub-regions exhibits defined ripe raspberry characters. McLaren Vale Shiraz is renowned for its great softness and rolling palate. Many winemakers in McLaren Vale choose to blend their final Shiraz from a variety of sub-regions to add complexity. McLaren Vale naturally produces Shiraz that has very small berries. Smaller berries have a higher skin to pulp ratio. Berry skin contains flavanols (Anti-sunburn in grapes, ‘flavour’ in wine), Anthocyanins (colour) and other complex molecules that add to wine complexity. Grape pulp contains sugar and water. Therefore the more skin to less pulp the more complex the finished wine. Small berries make more intense Shiraz wine. Within McLaren Vale and its subregions there is a diversity of soil types, clones and winemaking philosophies, which has led to a huge range of Shiraz wine styles being produced. Most winemakers produce at least one Shiraz wine
Cabernet Sauvignon is harvested in late March. Less famous than McLaren Vale Shiraz, but equally enchanting, Cabernet Sauvignon from McLaren Vale continues to display the rich ripe characters that typify wines from this region. Violet and blackcurrant flavours, vibrant plum, mint and edges of liquorice and a touch of McLaren Vale’s trademark dark chocolate character are common.
Grenache is harvested in late April. It is the ancient type of vine widely planted in France and Spain. It is the backbone of many of the worlds red and fortified wines. Grenache vines were removed from McLaren Vale in the 1980s when demand for fortified wines fell. Since the late 1990s Grenache has been enjoying a resurgence of popularity as table wine. The soils of McLaren Vale are particularly suited to this variety. However in wet years it can be difficult to grow well as it can produce big bunches of grapes which make a less concentrated wine. In the best vintages Grenache displays nuances of plum, mulberry and tobacco leaf, spice and mint characters with earthy overtones.
Chardonnay is harvested in mid March. This is the major white variety of McLaren Vale. The most pronounced and distinctive feature is ripe peaches, with the wine from cooler sites displaying white peach. These wines maintain elegance and generally have long cellaring potential. Some McLaren Vale Chardonnay also features ripe melon, banana, fig and cashew nut flavours – rich and generous with pure elegance.
Sauvignon Blanc is harvested in early March. Sauvignon Blanc from McLaren Vale has distinctive varietal characters of tropical fruit, green olives and asparagus, and a full-flavoured palate with a clean, fresh acid finish. Sauvignon Blanc grown in McLaren Vale reaches relatively high sugar levels compared with other wine regions growing this variety. The variety shows herbaceous, gooseberry, passionfruit and lychee aromas.
Petit Verdot is one of Bordeaux’s classic red grape varieties. It is a very thick-skinned grape that produces a wine of considerable depth, peppery, spicy and fragrant. Geoff Johnston of Pirramimma planted the first Australian plot at McLaren Vale in 1983 and it is only now that this wine is being recognised elsewhere. Demand for cuttings of this variety has expanded rapidly and more wines will be presented to the market in the future. Petit Verdot grapes produce wine that has the colour intensity and spice of Shiraz, but with added fragrance of violets, which makes the nose very attractive.
Sangiovese is an Italian variety that does well in low fertility soils and a warm dry climate. It is slow to ripen and produces wine high in acid and tannin. The wine is deep in colour and aroma, and good for long cellaring. Sangiovese is harvested in McLaren Vale in late March early April.
Tempranillo is a Spanish variety that produces a red wine that matures quickly and can be ready for drinking in the year of vintage. In Spain Tempranillo is one of the most popular reds and when blended with Carignan it makes the best red wine of the Rioja region.
Verdelho is a Portuguese white wine variety that likes low vigour soils and a warm dry climate, Verdelho has been around for some time and is enjoying an increase in popularity. It produces wines that are vivacious, fruit salad-like, dry, and best when drunk young and fresh.
Viognier is an exotic variety introduced from France where the best wines are produced in the Condrieu region. This variety exhibits exotic aromas of apricot and musk, and light oak and malolactic character; with rose, nectarine and white peach, McLaren Vale Viognier is spicy and complex with a huge spectrum of flavours.
Zinfandel is a thin-skinned grape that needs dry conditions to avoid rotting. Bunches ripen unevenly, requiring careful picking to ensure the true character is available to be further developed by the winemaker. Zinfandel is spicy in character without being particularly heavy.
The McLaren district has many different soil types and this contributes to the wines from the area having different terroir. The vineyards are planted on soils including fertile red-brown earths, terra rossa, rendzina, soft sands and dark cracking clays. Each of these soil types contributes to the rich diversity of wine produced by the winemakers of the region. Overall our soils have one common trait; they are free draining which means they hold very little water. This is, in fact, an advantage, as it allows the accurate control of moisture to the vines through the use of state-of-the-art drip irrigation. Because of reliable winter rain, irrigation can be kept to low levels and manipulated to achieve the production of superior fruit.
Some soil types allow grapes to be dry-grown. Approximately 20% of the total crop is dry-grown. These dry-grown vines are renowned for small fruit size, which is sought after for the intensity of its flavour. Most vineyards are found on gently undulating land at about 100 m above sea level. In the foothills of the Mt Lofty Ranges to the east, where there is a scattering of vineyards, elevation rises to 320 m. In the north around Blewitt Springs elevation is around 200 m. These variations in elevation have a significant impact on the terroir and fruit produced in the vineyards.
Check out the site McLaren Vale Shiraz, Shiraz, Wine, McLaren Vale, Australian Wine, Shiraz, Online Store
Waitress, Teen Boy Weigh In on Weight Woes...
Have you heard the one about the waitress who gained 15 pounds in her first year on the job, then signed on at an Internet forum and pleaded for help? True story.
Her problem perhaps is emblematic of what happens when one dines largely on restaurant food.
Although she ate two meals a day at the restaurant, the meals weren’t the problem so much as the constant snacking in between.
The restaurant allowed its workers to eat everything they wanted – small wonder she snacked so much.
So all day long she was into the potato chips, French fries, bacon, etc. Try as she might, she could not stop eating.
It wasn’t as if she wasn’t trying to lose weight. She was drinking a lot of water, jogging regularly, doing some strength training. But nothing could withstand the daily onslaught of snacks.
Her pals on the online forum had plenty of suggestions for her, and, well, you know how that goes.
But the best suggestion of all went missing, in my opinion. And that is:
Go work at a pet store. Or a bank. Or anywhere where you’re not walking past a plate of hot French fries every 5 minutes.
Get rid of the food, and you get rid of the weight.
***
So have you heard the one about the teenage basketball and baseball player who thought he was overweight so he asked an online doctor whether it might be a good idea to go on a low-carb diet? True story.
In what might be seen as a rather silly question, the doctor asked the boy whether he was fat. But she explained that teenage athletes often are heavier than their non-athlete classmates because they have more well-developed muscles.
Only people with excessive fat should go on a diet, the doctor said. Well-developed athletes, on the other hand, run the risk of losing muscle and thus weakening themselves if they try to lose weight. And weak athletes seldom make the A team.
Also, researchers are starting to question how efficient low-carb diets are, particularly for teenagers, the doctor said.
She recommended instead that, in addition to exercising regularly, the boy also should cut out sodas and juices and eat fewer calories each day.
Sounds like good advice.
Who
can help me
lose weight? As an Internet health and fitness researcher, Cindy
Cameron has written extensively on ways to lose weight.
Malaria Treatments -Learning Which Ones You Can Tr...
A major risk that many people around the world face is malaria – although this disease has many treatments, there are a few reasons that it is still a notable issue. In some parts of the world, malaria runs rampant, making it questionable as to whether or not travelers will visit these regions. Treating malaria, as well as avoiding it, is easy to do as long as you have the information to help you – this is the purpose of this article.
Treating this disease, people have used proven drugs that have worked for decades; however, new treatments are currently being manufactured by scientists using modern technology. At the University of Liverpool, for instance, a new drug has been made using organic molecules. The cost of producing this particular drug will be much lower because of the way that it is made. Artemisinin, a common anti-malaria drug, is combined with the molecules which makes it easier to create larger quantities of this remedy. Some countries face a serious threat from malaria and can now be helped much more effectively with this new low-cost drug.
If you are traveling to a part of the world where malaria is common, it’s important to be familiar with how this disease works. Anyone that has been bitten by a mosquito that has malaria will start having symptoms of this disease after a couple of weeks. This is not, however, always the case, as the parasites can live in your body for months or even years. So even after you have returned home from a trip, make sure you are on the watch for symptoms of malaria if you think you have been bitten.
Though not a contagious disease, malaria can spread very easily through travel. Usually, mosquitoes will travel with travelers and their luggage making it very easy for this disease to go from place to place. Despite the fact that the spreading does continue, malaria is primarily found in the southern portions of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Doctors that understand malaria sometimes have difficulty diagnosing this disease properly. The reason is that many of the symptoms of malaria include chills, fever, and coughing which is also associated with many other diseases and infections. A blood test is the usual way that malaria is conclusively diagnosed making it possible to separate the symptoms that could be similar to getting the flu or a cold. Most diseases that people get can be treated with antibiotics or by simply sleeping it off and allowing it to work its way out of your physical body.
Very different from the common cold, malaria can remain in your system for many weeks and cause complications with your health that will not go away. So, if you have symptoms that lead you to believe you have malaria, it is always best to get a blood test to see if you have it and if you need treatment. To treat malaria, there are many different things that must be considered and done. The goal is to eventually find a vaccine, although more cures for the disease are found every year. Regardless of what you do, or where you travel, you just need to be aware of your surroundings and try to avoid getting malaria at all costs.
For more information on malaria treatment check out mycross channel mojo info blog.
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