Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He was nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones (2009). Tucci's other recent celebrated roles have been in The Devil Wears Prada and Julie & Julia. He has been nominated three times for Golden Globes, and won twice — for his title role in Winchell, and for his supporting role as Adolph Eichmann in Conspiracy, both from HBO films. He also received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Winchell. He was nominated for Broadway’s Tony Award as Best Actor in a Play for his role as Johnny in the 2002 revival of Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.
Stephanie Caraway
Stephanie, a Certified Sommelier, began her career in New York working at a number of notable establishments such as Balthazar and the Cub Room. Moving on to Arizona, Ms. Caraway studied in the cellar of Peter Kasperski, while managing the Wine Spectator Award winning wine programs of Cowboy Ciao, Kazimierz, and Sea Saw. Subsequently, while with of Fox Restaurant Concepts, she was the steward of a quarter million dollar wine program and was responsible for the education of the staff of not only one restaurant, but several different restaurant concepts. Stephanie was honored by Food and Wine Magazine which named her one of the Top Sommeliers of 2010. She currently holds a position with Southern Wine & Spirits.
Ray Isle
Ray Isle is Executive Wine Editor of FOOD & WINE, the modern, stylish, trend-spotting, talent-seeking epicurean brand. In addition to overseeing F&W’s wine department, Isle writes the monthly column, Tasting Room, for the magazine, directs the title’s spirits coverage, and is the author of foodandwine.com’s wine blog, Tasting Room. Isle was promoted from wine editor in 2010, and has also served as deputy wine editor and senior editor. Prior to joining FOOD & WINE in 2005, Isle was managing editor of Wine & Spirits Magazine. He regularly conducts wine tasting seminars at epicurean events and appears as a wine and spirits expert on national television, including NBC’s Today and CBS’s The Early Show.
Maximilian Riedel
Born in Vienna, Austria, Maximilian Josef Riedel is an 11th-generation glassmaker. He is CEO of Riedel Crystal America, the company that first introduced the concept of varietal-specific wine glasses. Maximilian is an award-winning glass designer. Most recently he has introduced his beautiful and ingenious "Eve" and "Mamba" double wine decanters, which achieve the effect of hours of decanting in just moments.
Rosie Perez
Rosie Perez is an actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist. Spike Lee hired her for her first major acting role in Do the Right Thing. She has appeared in numerous movies including the hit comedy White Men Can't Jump co-starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. Ms. Perez made her Broadway debut in Terrence McNally'sFrankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. She was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Peter Weir's 1993 film Fearless. Ms. Perez has choreographed music videos for Janet Jackson, Bobby Brown, Diana Ross and LL Cool J among others. She provides the voices of Click, the camera, on Nick Jr.'s Go, Diego, Go! and Chel, a beautiful native woman in the DreamWorks Animation film The Road to El Dorado.
Stephen Flaherty
Stephen Flaherty writes music for theater, film, recordings and the concert stage. He is perhaps best known as the composer of the Broadway musicals Ragtime, for which he won the Tony Award, Seussical and Once on This Island, as well as the animated film musical Anastasia, for which he was nominated for 2 Academy Awards and 2 Golden Globes. In addition, Stephen has written 4 stage musicals produced by Lincoln Center Theater. He was most recently represented on Broadway by the 2009–2010 revival of Ragtime.
Barossa Valley Estates
Elderton Wines
Langmeil Winery
Penfolds Wines
Turkey Flat Vineyards
Yalumba Winery
Barossa
Located about 40 miles northeast of the city of Adelaide, Barossa, a 1,970 square kilometer region which encompasses the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley, is South Australia’s best known wine region. It is famous for its opulent red wines--especially Shiraz. Other full-bodied reds such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache are produced, as are some wonderful premium white wines including Riesling, Semillon, and Chardonnay. Wine-making has been an industry in the region since 1842, and many of the vineyards and wineries that exist today are run by sixth-generation owner/producers. The oldest Shiraz vineyard is planted at Barossa's Langmeil Winery.
Barossa has two basic soil types; brown, loamy sand to clay loam and more sandy light-brownish-grey to dark-grey- brown soils. Both produce low yields of high quality grapes. The area is also characterized by large diurnal temperature variation (the variation in temperature that occurs from the highs of the day to the lows at night.)
Early settlers in the area first experimented by planting Riesling grapes on the warm valley floor. Distilling the Riesling to produce brandy brought about a period in which fortified wines of the region became extremely popular. Simultaneously, dark grapes, in particular Shiraz and Grenache, began to be planted at various altitudes, taking advantage of different micro climates.
Not until the 1980s did Australian Shiraz gain international recognition. In the late 20th century, several family wineries specializing in old vine Shiraz wines began marketing exceptional, full-bodied reds that have become the signature premium wines of the region. Barossa Shiraz is the most widely exported premium wine of Australia, representing more than a quarter of total international sales by value. About 75% of this region's Shiraz bottles are shipped to the U.S., the U.K., Canada, New Zealand, and Switzerland.
For more on Barossa Shiraz, click here.
Photo courtesy of the Barossa Grape & Wine Association (www.barossa.com)
• Colonel William Light, an early surveyor in Australia, named the Barossa Valley after the 1811 Battle of Barrosa in Spain, where he had served the British militarily. The misspelling of “Barrosa” occurred as the result of a clerical error when the region’s name was registered in 1837. Visit www.winesfoasutralia.comand www.barossa.com for more information about this region and its wines.
• The current population of the Barossa Valley is about 20,000, many of whom are descendants of original German-speaking immigrants from the Prussian province of Silesia. Almost 500 Lutheran families fleeing religious persecution came to this area of Australia in the 1840s from Europe.
• There are a total of 13,256 hectares of vineyards planted in the Barossa. The 755 grape growers have an average vineyard size of 17.7 hectares.
• As a result of strict quarantine restrictions since the early 19th century, Australian vineyards have been spared phylloxera infestations and various plant diseases that wiped out other wine regions in the world during the past two hundred years. Barossa therefore has some of the oldest Shiraz vines still in existence, some of them dating back to the mid-1850s
• Because there is a city in Iran called Shiraz, and Shirazi, a popular wine, is made there, it was once believed that Syrah/Shiraz was brought to the Rhône region of France from Persia. DNA has proven that Syrah is the offsping of France’s own Dureza and Mondeuse blanche grapes.
• Shiraz is the most widely grown dark grape in Australia. The identical variety is called Syrah in France and is only called Shiraz in Australia, South Africa, Canada, and occasionally in the U.S. Until 1989, the grape was known throughout Australia as Hermitage.