ON THE NOSE:
Fruit, fruit, and nothing but fruit. Black currants and dark cherry reside on the nose, and really, folks, not much else. A nice nose, not unpleasant, just not complex as it offers jammy fruit that really just smells like, well, jam. As it opened up it offered more of the same, never changing much, never offering more than fruit. Fruit isn’t bad, just one-dimensional.
ON THE PALATE:
No surprises here ladies and gentlemen, for this wine does one thing and one thing only: it offers fruit on the nose, fruit on the palate, and fruit on the finish. Definitely some of that fake fruity sweetness here, like eating jam from a jar, but not really, REALLY good jam, more the commercial stuff whose second ingredient is corn syrup. This, my friends, is a fruit-bomb, and not worthy of further words. It was pleasant for what it was, and we didn’t mind drinking it, but it is not what we look for in good wine, or even good wine values. Again, mind you, it isn’t bad wine! On the plus side it does have some structure, and while it doesn’t have a very good tannic backbone it does offer a decent acidity that keeps us drinking it. We did decant this bottle because it was rather late in the evening already and we wanted all we could from what this wine had to offer as soon as possible, and I must say that the structure improved over time even if the actual flavor profile never did get beyond the fruit.
This Shiraz was a closeout at our local wine merchant for about $11, and I can’t imagine it ever actually costing more, but, of course, it is from California, which seems to be the land that will charge you more if it thinks it can get it. Unfortunately people do buy it, and that keeps them raising their prices. I am often amazed that I can find far, far better values in wines from Spain, Portugal, Argentina, New Zealand, and even Chile (if selective, of course), but I must spend more dollars when I want to buy a wine from our own shores. That is just plain stupid.
This wine is a pass! However, I did just search the web for this wine and read that this wine can be had for as little as $3.99 at Trader Joe’s, which makes me wonder just who made so much money offering it as a “closeout” for $10.95!!! That’s only $1 below retail! I feel cheated. At $3.99 I might have a few of these around for quaffing, but at $11 it is a major pazz. Actually, this wine kind of SUX.
(Click here for an explanation of our ratings ...)
Our Rating: 79
Would we drink it again? 
Never
Would we buy it again?
At $3.99 maybe, at $11, never again!
