Drinking Ales

What To Drink In Australia

An old Australian joke says that a traditional seven course Australian meal is a meat pie and a six pack of beer! Australians do love their beer, but today they also relish some of the best good value wine in the world. It is estimated that there are 10,000 different Australian wine sons the market at any one time. While the health conscious can choose from dozens of bottled waters and fresh fruit juices, this is also the country that makes alcoholic lemonade from its lemon crop and another alcoholic drink from rhubarb. Imported wines, beers and spirits are also readily available but you will always be reminded to buy Australian while you are there.

White Wine: Australians first adapted table wine in the 1960′s and 1970′s. At first they prefer a sweet type of wine and later became found of the drier styles such as Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. A passion also began to evolve for wood matured wines, and today varieties such as Marsanne have become very popular.

Red Wine: The Grange Hermitage brand is the benchmark for Australian red wine. It was created in the late 1950′s by Max Schubert and he believed that wines needed decades of cellaring before they are at there optimal taste. At the other end of the spectrum, Wolf Blass, became popular with the make it and drink it now approach, with quickly maturing wines.

Beer: Beer in Australia is vat fermented real ale or lager, and are meant to be consumed chilled. A full strength beer has an alcohol content of 4.8% while a light beer has less then 3% alcohol content. Although beer was traditional heat stylized, cold filtration has now become increasingly popular. Some of the more popular beer names and originating regions are: James Boag and Cascade from Tasmania,Castlemain XXXX from Queensland, Fosters and Victoria Bitter (VB) from Victoria, Tooheys red and blue labels from New South Wales and Coopers Sparkling Ale (known locally as lunatic soup) from South Australia.

Spirits: Dark and white rums are produced from Queensland sugar cane plantations. Some the the more notable labels include Bundaberg and Beenleigh. Domestic brandies are produced from some of Australia’s finest grape vintage. Popular brandy labels include St. Agnes and Hardy’s.

Just to note…Although these beverages all sound yummy ans you will want to try them, please make sure that you are not getting behind the wheel of the car after doing so. Designate a driver for the evening or hire a car service so that you and your friends can have a safe holiday!

Tours for Wine Tasting

Those who want to become experts in the field of wine tasting join wine tasting tours.

Many years ago, wine tasting tours were only for the elite members of the society. But now, the tours are already open even to ordinary individuals. So whether you’re just interested in knowing the different kinds of wines or you’re a born wine lover, you can join the wine tasting tours for as long as you like.

Since you’re new in the wine tasting tours, you should be ready for the various activities. There are two types of tour available. The experienced or so called “experts” are the ones who usually organize the first tour, The second one is a tour that you can organize by yourself.

If this is your first time you would be well advised to join one of the groups organized by the professionals. Joining this type of group will ensure you have well organized activities for each day. If you make a note of all the places you go and the things you do you will have a plan of action for when it is time to go on your own.

There is lots of details on wine tasting tours on the Internet so that would be a good place to start. If the tour is not in your area then you need to consider planning your trip. Contact the tour company to make arrangement to meet them at a pre-determined place and time.Make arrangement to meet the tour company at a place that is convenient. They will not wait for you if you are not at the meeting point on time so ensure you set off giving yourself plenty of time to get there. Vineyards are found in different locations and so the tour lasts for a day. The tour will normally start early in the morning since most of the time will be consumed in driving from one vineyard to another.

When at the vineyard a tiny glass of wine is given as a sample. Taking 1 oz of wine is already enough to taste the wine and if you taste all the wines in the different vineyards you visit, it will surely add up. Driving after drinking so much is not a good idea so it would be a good idea to either leave the car and come back later to pick it up or have someone in your party as the designated driver for the day.

There are plenty of organized trips available with private tour companies, using these companies even though more expensive than going on your own can be less stressful. The company will be the one to make the reservations and handle all the other tasks need to make your tour that perfect day.