Finally!

I have been looking for ages for a good sparkling red wine. Outside of the wine list at Ransome's Dock, no one seems to carry them. But I found one finally - from a shop I found on-line called The Sampler.

This bottle of wine was worth the time I've spent hunting one down. It was the 2009 sparkling pinot noir from Penley Estates, an Australian producer who predominantly makes traditional red wines. The sparkling wine was wonderful, big and juicy, with loads of raspberry and blackberry flavour, with just a touch of prune on the finish. It had a good amount of fizz that lasted and kept the wine from being too heavy. It was perfect for last night's warm weather with grilled steaks. I will definitely be buying a few more bottles of this, in hopes that we get some more warm days to BBQ.

I know that for proper red wine drinkers and champagne fanatics, this sort of thing is just not on. But I like sparkling reds, I like having a wine with a bit more heft that still has the frivolity of the bubbles. As a friend has always told me, "a good wine is one that you like, regardless of how much it cost or what name is on the bottle". This was a good wine.