January 1
2006 Virgin Vines Shiraz
My experience with wine has made me a disbeliever of labels. Almost like the prettier the bottle the worse the wine. I know that is a gross generalization and should never actually be applied, but…. Anyway, the bottle is one of the best I’ve seen. It looks like its hand painted grape vines and wording. The big turn off for me, like a big red flag,
was the Virgin logo on it. Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines, and now Virgin Vines… all the same logo. All this plus the fact that it was only 8 bucks meant I had very low expectations for this wine… I thought it might be an “OK” everyday wine. But I was surprised how good it actually was.
The color was as beautiful as the wine -a fairly deep garnet color. The nose is pretty closed, but smells of dark fruit and a little smokiness and chocolate. The flavor is a dark and red fruit mix and is quite pure. There is also some vegetation and tannin – very balanced with to medium acidity. This is a great food wine – just not with spicy food. It finishes strong with lingering plum and spice. This Shiraz is closer to Italian in style than Australian, and I haven’t had enough Californian Syrah to compare it too.
Rating: 90 pts (truly)
Price: $8
(I’ll put a pic when I can get a decent one. The bottle is mostly clear and when the dark wine is gone… well it just isn’t the same.)
