A few decades ago, in another life, I spent a week “Down Under” courtesy of the US Army. What I remember of that R&R week in Sydney is a bit fuzzy, but one aspect of Australian life was crystal clear: those folks liked their adult beverages! While my beverage of choice that week was beer - (which came in 10W-40-like cans or large mugs called “Schooners”), years later I came to appreciate another consumable liquid ably produced by the Aussies – wine.

Over the last 20 years, I have seen the Australian wine market grow from a few recognizable quality brands like Penfolds, to hundreds of excellent wineries from several growing regions in that vast country. Of all the wine regions in the country, the Barossa Valley in southeastern Australia is the most prestigious and -- meteorologically speaking -- is very much like northern California with vintages that are consistently very good.

While Australia is known mainly for its shiraz (which the rest of the world calls syrah) along with cabernet sauvignon, the Aussie wine makers also produce excellent chardonnay, riesling, semillon and grenache. I particularly enjoy the old vine Australian grenache. While Australian grenache is sometimes made as a single varietal, it is most often blended with shiraz and sometimes mourvedre, a deeply purple grape used to provide color and weight to the finished wine.

I’ve often wondered if the cultural diversity of Australia has played a role in the ubiquitous practice by wine makers from “Down Under” to blend different varieties of grapes to produce their wine. Whatever the reason, I’m glad they continue to blend because the resulting wines are not only very good, they provide complex tasting experiences. Here are some Australian wines you might try along with food suggestions to pair with them.

One of my favorite wineries is d’Arenberg whose wines go by some very strange and humorous names such as The Lucky Lizard Chardonnay, Dead Arm Shiraz (photo at right - click to enlarge) and The Hermit Crab Viognier, just to name a few. Try the old vine grenache from d’Arenberg called The Custodian ($15). This wine is from ancient vines – some more than 100 years old – and yet it is soft, approachable and full of spicy blueberry flavors. It would be a wonderful accompaniment to grilled baby back ribs.

D’Arenberg also makes a delicious blended wine comprised of shiraz with just a small amount of viognier (that’s right, viognier – a white wine) called The Laughing Magpie ($25). This wine has excellent aging potential and is full of dark plum and blackberry flavors that emerge after about one hour in a carafe. Try it with marinated and grilled top sirloin.

An absolutely delicious white is the aforementioned Hermit Crab Viognier ($14), which is a Rhone-like blend of viognier and marsanne. This wine is very will balanced and chock full of ripe pear flavors with a pronounced minerality. Its great as a porch-sipper or with lighter fish dishes such as flounder and sole plainly cooked and sauced with lemon and butter.

Another of my favorite shiraz’ is one produced by Torbreck called The Woodcutter’s Red ($22) This is a spicy, elegant wine with hints of blackberries that is pulled together by excellent balancing acidity. Grilled salmon with a southwest seasoning would be a good choice with the Woodcutter’s.

Hewitson’s Miss Harry ($24) is another great blend of grenache, mourvedre and shiraz that is a stunning wine full of complex dark fruit flavors. It is a full-bodied, round and rich wine that will definitely benefit from two or three years in the bottle, and would be a superb accompaniment to grilled rack of lamb that has been basted with garlic, rosemary olive oil and lemon.

Australia also does a wonderful job with non-traditional white wines like semillon. Semillon originated in the Graves region of Bordeaux and is blended there with sauvignon blanc to produce an austere and dry wine that is a great match with simply prepared seafood dishes.

In Australia, semillon (which, often as not, is blended with chardonnay or sauvignon blanc) is made in a much richer style, yet it exhibits a mineral quality that allows it to go quite well with oysters on the half shell as well as pasta dishes with a pesto or asparagus sauce. Try the Semillon from Simon Hackett, Rosemount and Peter Lehmann all of which retail for under $20 a bottle.

Riesling is also a good choice from Down Under and the following wines are in the $10 to $20 range: Pikes Clare Valley Riesling, Wolf Blass Adelaide Gold and Grant Burge. Slightly sweet, these are great aperitif wines or good matches to lighter foods like seafood salads or brunch grub such as omelets.

My name is John and I am a hedonist!

This is a declaration I feel compelled to make after attending – for the second consecutive year - the International Pinot Noir Celebration (IPNC). The event is held annually the last weekend of July in the heart of Oregon’s Willamette Valley - the acclaimed American Viticultural Area (AVA) where pinot noir is king.

While my affection for pinot noir and its versatility was the primary catalyst for the return trip, I must admit that memories of the “incredible edibles” prepared by a host of talented chefs from all over the northwest made the decision easy.

In fact, in a few short days we participated in and consumed wine and food at three multi-course dinners, two luncheons (all outdoors in perfect weather conditions) and a Champagne brunch featuring food almost too visually appealing to eat – almost! In addition, we attended and sipped wine at four seminars and two evening receptions, featuring more than 100 wineries from Oregon, Burgundy, New Zealand and California.

Now, before you get the impression that this was an out-of-control bacchanalian orgy, let me emphasize that the more than 400 people attending this event were under control. I saw no evidence of stumbling, bumbling or slurring. I did, though, observe many people spitting wine into Styrofoam cups or pouring their wine into dumping vessels. (By the way, spitting is an acceptable practice in wine tasting, particularly when the taster must evaluate multiple wines.)

And no, I didn’t observe anyone drinking from the dump bucket like the actor in “Sideways.” However, I do think we West Virginians have genetic advantage when it comes to accurately expectorating. It comes from generations of our kinfolk who were adept at hitting a spittoon from great distances in saloons where such feats were commonplace and necessary to avoid bodily harm if the expectorant missed its target.

So, what were we discussing? Oh, Oregon pinot noir.

While Oregon boasts 16 other AVA’s, the Willamette Valley and its sub-regions such as Dundee Hills, Chehalem Mountains and Eola-Amity Hills, represent the best of the best producers of pinot noir. And while pinot noir is the mainstay of the area, wine makers are justly proud of whites such as pinot gris, pinot blanc and chardonnay which are also widely produced.

But pinot noir was the feature of this trip and I came away from the event with a major epiphany regarding this wine. In the past, I’ve always thought of pinot noir (particularly the wines produced in America) as being ready to drink when they reach the market. While this is generally true, I also discovered that pinot noir can benefit from years of aging in the bottle.

At one of the evening al fresco dinner events, I was served two 20-plus year old pinot noirs from Oregon. Both of them were delicious and still full of life. The 1987 Adelsheim exhibited caramel aromas along with cola and cinnamon flavors while the 1988 Elk Cove had a bouquet of leather and earth with flavors of ripe cherries and nuances of spice.

Other wines throughout the weekend confirmed this impression of the age-worthiness of pinot noir as I sipped excellent older wines from Burgundy. In addition, we were served several white Burgundies (chardonnay), including ones from Chablis and Beaune which were both more than eight years old and still drinking quite young.

I also drank absolutely stunning wines from Domaine Serene, R. Stuart, Chehalem, Ponzi, Bethel Heights, Domaine Drouhin, Scott Paul, Patricia Green and Van Deuzer. From Australia, Bindi Pinot Noir was excellent as was the Felton Road from New Zealand. From California, I loved the wines of Hirsch (Russian River), Laetitia, and Robert Sinskey.

Next time, I’ll focus on the theme of the IPNC event: “Sustainability Without Sacrifice.” While that kind of sounds like a description of my work ethic, it really deals with issues in the vineyard.

Last week I discussed a recent blind tasting I conducted where tasters were asked to evaluate six cabernet sauvignons (or cabernet blends). I suggested that you might wish to sip a few of the wines and judge for yourself before I revealed how our group viewed the order of preference.

So far the only feedback I've gotten has come from a few disgruntled wine lovers who have taken me to task for not letting you know which wines were judged best.

Okay, okay, I get the message. Here are the results along with the country of origin and the retail price:

1. 2006 Marques Casa Concha (Chile $19)

2. 2003 Falcor Le Bijou (Napa Valley $32)

3. 2007 El Portillo Cabernet Sauvignon (Argentina $14)

4. 2006 Larose De Gruaud (Bordeaux, France $35)

5. 2007 Guenoc Victorian Claret (California $15)

6. 2007 McWilliams Hanwood Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (Australia $11)

As I mentioned, all of the wines were enjoyable with none eliciting serious criticisms. In fact, wines four, five and six were pretty much in a dead heat. My own evaluations tracked right along with the group except my number one choice was Le Bijou and second was the Casa Concha. Le Bijou and the Guenoc Claret were wines which had various other tradlitional Bordeaux blending grapes such as merlot, cabernet franc and petit verdot.

I generally prefer the cabernet blends to 100 percent cabernet since they seem to have more layers of flavor and are less "in your face" than full throttle cabernet sauvignon. I must admit, however, that the Marques Casa Concha is an excellent wine and will continue to improve with a few years of bottle age.

The Willamette Valley is an area in Oregon that produces exceptional pinot noir.Okay, so we all know artists are a bit “out there” or they wouldn’t be able to create the amazing works they produce. In an otherwise mundane, complex, stressful and boring existence, artists provide a break from normalcy and present unique perspectives on the world we all share. I love art- even if sometimes I don’t understand a painting, a treatise, a photograph, a bit of music and, yes, even the metaphysical ramblings of some wine makers.

At the recently completed IPNC (International Pinot Noir Celebration) in Oregon, the title and theme of this year’s event was “Sustainability Without Sacrifice.” This theme was touched on in every IPNC symposium. In layman’s terms, it means you can sustain and indeed improve the vineyard by using more organic methods of farming. For example, instead of using conventional herbicides and other man-made chemical in the vineyards, sustainability depends on using what is in nature to produce the best end product.

So far, so good. I can buy-in to the sustainability way of doing things. I can even imagine that the wine produced from a vineyard farmed in this manner can be superior. But the level after sustainability is something called biodynamics. If sustainability is a practical – if somewhat retro- manner of growing grapes, biodynamic farming is part mumbo-jumbo, part voodoo and part snake oil. I ain’t buying this sack of potatoes!

But first more about sustainability. Some of the more recognizable components of sustainability are using natural fertilizers, composting and the cultivation of plants that attract insects that are beneficial to grape vines. Sustainability practices in the vineyard also extend to actions you would not suspect have a relationship to the quality of the vine such as providing areas for wildlife to flourish and allowing weeds to grow between the vines. It also involves using bio-diesel for tractors to reduce emissions and doing everything to limit the carbon footprint in the vineyard. Ultimately, sustainability broadens to encompass the whole eco-system surrounding the vineyard so that all the natural elements work in harmony and in a natural way.

Ted Casteel, an owner of Bethel Heights Winery in the Willamette Valley (and a fellow who produces my favorite pinot gris in Oregon), views sustainability this way: “It’s maintaining biological diversity and ecological balance on the whole farm, minimizing the use of 'off-farm' inputs such as fungicides, synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and diesel.”

Hey, I’m with you, Ted -- who wants to sip pinot noir that has nuances of Co2?!

But the biodynamic vineyard movement – which seems to have gotten its start in the Burgundy region of France – is sustainability on steroids! It involves some things that are downright looney. It can include practices such as stuffing cow horns with manure and burying them in vineyards over the winter, fermenting flowers in stags’ bladders, and timing these unorthodox methods of farming with the phases of the moon and the location of the stars in the night sky. Holy Wicked Witch of the West, Batman!

Anyway, a few of the presenters at the IPNC conference actually tried to make sense of this type of agricultural wizardry. Fortunately, most of the wine makers I spoke with privately about biodynamics were as skeptical as me. Some expressed concern that those pushing biodynamic farming were actually harming the acceptance and credibility of sustainability. Others described biodynamics as nothing more than a cheap and confusing marketing ploy.

The purpose of this rant on biodynamics is simply to alert you to the latest wine scam. It is being used by the enemies of ordinary wine drinkers to confuse and make the wine-making process more complicated and mysterious than it already is. So, repeat after me: sustainability is OK, biodynamics is balderdash!

In fact, the next time some label boasts of the biodynamic farming methods used to produce the wine, I’m going to buy a bottle of the stuff, take it to a gentlemen’s club, give it a lap dance, then bury it this fall in the nearest landfill under a quarter moon. I’ll check back next spring and report to you on the results.

A 2004 Montevina Terre d’Oro Amador County Zinfandel ($22) will go great with the recipe below. I must admit: I am a carnivore -- especially when it comes to beef. Give me a piece of red meat and I’ll rub that sucker with loads of black pepper, garlic and a little Kosher salt, and then I’ll build a charcoal fire so big it will create its own micro-climate. Next, I’ll roast the meat until the red inside just starts turning pink, and then I’ll wolf it down with a big, purple wine that will make your lips pucker and your heart sing!

And while there’s nothing better in this whole wide world than any type of meat or even fish on a grill, I must admit that I do enjoy my veggies, too, particularly the ones I procure from our own farmer’s market here in Charleston. For the next six weeks, we’ll have the opportunity to choose from a cornucopia of the region’s most wonderful assortment of vegetables.

I am a fan of peppers! Green ones, red ones and especially hot ones. I have prepared peppers in more ways than the normal person can fathom. I roast them, stuff them, fry them, freeze them, can them and, above all, I consume them almost daily. One of my favorite ways to prepare red, sweet peppers combines stuffing, roasting and grilling. I think you’ll love this recipe. Today, I’m going to share a recipe with you for a special summer time meal combining the best ingredients from my favorite food groups – red meat, vegetables and pasta. Oh, and I’ll tell you about a wine or two that will make the whole experience even more pleasurable. This recipe is for two people so you can increase it depending upon the number you’re serving

A MEATY NOTE: I get most of my meat from Sandy Creek Farms in Ravenswood or Johnnnies Meat at the Capitol Market. Sandy Creek Farms raises its own beef and pork, using only natural feeds such as corn, soybean meal, molasses and oats. It’s about as organic as it gets and it is also terrific tasting. They deliver to Charleston once a week right to your door and you can contact them at 800-487-2569 or email them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Preparing the meat and the peppers 1. Use a one and one-half inch rib-eye steak. Put a few drops of olive oil on each side of the meat and then rub both sides with a mixture of one-half teaspoon of kosher salt and minced garlic and one teaspoon of coarsely ground black pepper. Set aside for about one hour.

2. Cut two sweet red bell peppers lengthwise in half. Remove seeds and stems, rub inside and out with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

3. Place peppers on a roasting pan and cook in the oven at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes until soft, but still firm and set aside.

Preparing the pasta 4. Boil one-half pound of orzo (little pasta that looks like rice) in a combination of one-quart of water and one quart chicken broth, stirring constantly until the orzo absorbs the liquid and is al-dente.

5.Add salt and pepper to taste and one cup of grated pecorino romano cheese to the orzo. Spoon the orzo mixture into each of the roasted pepper halves and top each with a piece of provolone cheese. The Finish 6. Prepare your charcoal or gas grill and when ready, grill the steak and place the orzo stuffed peppers on the grill, but not over the fire. When the meat is cooked to your satisfaction, let it rest for about 10 minutes and then cut it in one-quarter inch slices and plate it with the roasted and stuffed red peppers.

The WineYou’ll have many choices to match with this meal, but let me suggest these two lovelies: 2004 Montevina Terre d’Oro Amador County Zinfandel ($22) and/or the 2005 Le Gagie Barbera D’Asti ($23). Both of these wines would make delicious accompaniments to this meal.

Enjoy!