A fizzy lifting drink and a gigantic digeridoo

Last night, I attended a food and wine event at the Australian embassy. They had a wine tasting going on, which I adore - I love nodding as the sommelier discusses the bouquet and pretending to know what he's talking about, then swirling the wine around in my glass pretentiously and taking slow sips, pausing in between each one to try and pick out different notes, although the best I can usually come up with is nothing more detailed than "fruity" or "woody." Classy, Kate. Occasionally, though, I encounter a wine that packs a real gustatory wallop (very technical term.) Last night's was the sparkling Shiraz. Indeed, I had never even heard of it, so it was quite a pleasant surprise. It had all the intensity of a good Shiraz with a pleasant buzzy kick. I think I'm really excited about it because I truly prefer red wine, but it always seems so heavy in the summer. This, though, is as refreshing as a white (it is served chilled), but I don't have to sacrifice that full-bodied flavor of a red that I love. I'm told it goes well with barbecue; I think it would be a great accompaniment for grilled steak.

The wine we sampled was a 2004 Paringa sparkling Shiraz. Relatively inexpensive at $10 a bottle (I can afford it, hurrah!), it had notes of blackberry, raspberry and chocolate. Pretty much everyone I saw return to the bar requested a glass of it. Fun and delicious.

Note: I was told that sparkling Shiraz is not very common and can be difficult to locate. I'm not sure of any DC wine stores that carry it - I'm going to check Best Cellars in Dupont today. Two websites that I've found that have it (and deliver!) are The Jug Shop (great selection) and Stirling Fine Wine.

Also, I saw an Aborigine play a digeridoo. A night can't get much better than that.