Here's a review of yet another novelty bargain wine that's hit the local shop... Tonight I'm quaffing the 2003 Four Emus Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz Merlot with a vegetarian pizza. How long will the "cute Australian animal" trend continue with wine? I think it's marketing genius and am glad that it's helped demystify wine and make it seem less threatening. The first time someone comes out with "Thundering Wombat Shiraz" I'm buying a case. I fear that "Bandicoot Barbera" and "Numbat Nebbiolo" might not look as adorable on a label.
It's made in Western Australia, is connected to the Constellation conglomerate, and is made up of 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Shiraz, and 15% Merlot. Personally I think they should have switched the Cab Sav and Shiraz. As it is, it suffers from the inexpensive Cabernet Sauvignon curse, which means very simple "red wine" aroma, big mouth-drying tannins, and little flavor. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, it just reminds me of one of dozens of generic red wines that fail to stand out of the crowd. For $7, it wasn't a bad deal, but I probably won't be getting it again.
This wine is also a screwcap, which was sort of amusing to me on the way home. Not that I have anything against screwcaps--in fact, I love them more and more every day. But after work I first stopped off to buy a new rabbit-style corkscrew. The old rabbit died recently, since it was an early model made with some stress-bearing plastic parts. So I got a new all-metal one, and decided to grab an inaugaral bottle of wine to go with it. So what did I do? I bought a screwcap wine.
2 comments:
Don't you mean South Australia. I don't recognise it as a West wine.
I just bought this today on a bargain deal, (£10 for four bottles) and it is also from Southern Australia. Earlier versions might have been Western Australia? The version I am drinking now is OK as a table wine, but I'm definitely not going to buy it for it's normal price @ £6.05 per bottle! If ever again. The phrase "getting rid of a bland batch" springs to mind.
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