Just bought my first bottle of 19 crimes, a South eastern Australia red, on special at Asda for £7. The 19 crimes are those that got you transported to Australia, i.e. not enough to get you hung. Each cork has one of the crimes on it, mine was stealing a shroud off a dead body. The labels also have different pics of real criminals from back then on them, and their back story is available on their website. All in all a great bit of marketing, given the propensity of us to collect. What about the wine though?. Soft tannins an dhints of dark chocolate and black cherries, enough so to mean it would probably drink on its own, but I had it with meatballs peppers and mushroom pasta, and it was slipping down all too easily. Varietals are not mentioned, but I am guessing that there's a Shiraz /Grenache dominated sort of blend in there by the taste of things, and can say that the skill employed in the marketing matches the winemaking.
I've also loved my first bottle of Kora New Zealand sauvignon blanc given to me by a local old fellow for xmas. I had it with cold smoked trout and king prawns, and it was a massive, massive version of the cat peeing on a gooseberry bush cliché, can't remember the last time a wine woke up taste buds like that did. A great experience. I'm buying fish tonight to give it something to go with to finish it off.
Two lovely wines that took the edge off a crap Christmas.
