Sparkling Shiraz aids Collective “Patio Weather” Obsession among Canadians

Living in Canada, as I do, I’m part of a collective obsession with “patio weather”. I’d like to propose that sparkling shiraz is an excellent beverage to see us through our spring patio cravings. (Note to policy makers: a yearly bottle stipend under provincial health care schemes would likely help reduce mental health days). In any case, if you’d like to understand this Canadian patio weather obsession, here’s a rough description of how the attitude is cultivated:  

• many Canadians spend long, warm summers boating and camping, enjoying backyard bbqs with cold beer and wine, spend lazy August weeks reading on the deck at the family summer cottage, drinking pitchers of beer on pub patios with a pile of buddies
• THEN, winter strikes and many months are spent indoors, installing remote starters for our cars (so that it’s warm by the time you get in), repeatedly shoveling the driveway, and not knowing until last minute if you can travel due to dangerous icy highways
• AT LAST! snow melts, early spring daffodils peeks through the soil, the air obtains true characteristics of warmth

That final stage reinfuses ideas of the Canadian summer lifestyle into our heads, and we positively strain toward that season. This leads to inevitable sightings of Canadians in shorts on the first sunny spring day above 10 degrees Celsius. This also leads to premature outings to neighbour patios. In April and May, hardy Canadians can often be spotted dotting the patios of restaurants situated in direct afternoon sunlight and out of the wind. Often this is during work hours on a Friday or on opening day of Major League Baseball. We may also attempt to have a weekend outdoor bbq, which offers upward to two hours of enjoyable warmth before we reach for coats, blankets and possibly toques in order to remain outdoors at all cost.

Enter sparkling shiraz. Clearly rich, red wine does not remind us of summer, and cold beer on a spring patio might result in loss of sensation in the extremities. Sparkling shiraz, however, is great served slightly chilled and exhibits much of the same flavours we love in ‘regular’ Australian shiraz. The frothy fizz tempers rich black fruit, pepper, red berries and oak. The height of summer temperatures might not do justice to something so full-bodied, which is exactly why sparkling shiraz is so good in the patio weather shoulder season. 

As with good Champagne and traditional sparkling wine, the quality of a bubbly shiraz can be judged by its fizz. Have a look in your glass and work out if the bubbles are tiny and fine, or whether larger beads gleam through the liquid. The latter can indicate intentional injection of CO2 into the wine, whereas better quality sparkling is created by actual fermentation in the bottle. (During fermentation yeast eats up sugars and converts it to alcohol and CO2 – voila, fizz.) Maybe it’s not that big a deal, but which wine seems like it’s made with more care:  manually carbonated bottles or naturally formed bubbles? If you want to ensure you’re purchasing better bubbles, bottle fermented sparkling should state “methode traditionelle” right on the label.

Finer points aside, here are some ideas of sparkling shiraz on the market in Canada:

-Katnook Estate, Founder’s Block Sparkling Shiraz, Coonawarra, South Australia
-Majella Wines Sparkling Shiraz,Coonawarra, South Australia
-Peter Lehmann, The Black Queen Sparkling Shiraz, Barossa Valley, South Australia
-Mollydooker, Goosebumps Sparkling Shiraz, McLaren Vale, South Australia
-The Black Chook Sparkling Shiraz, McLaren Vale, South Australia
-Bleasdale Langhorne Creek Sparkling Shiraz, Langhorne Creek, South Australia 

Something a little different - Sparkling Pinot Noir:
-Bird in Hand, Adelaide Hills, South Australia