An easy-drinking Chardonnay from a storied vintner
"Transgressive packaging makes the wine stand out on the shelf and hedonistic sensibilities in winemaking result in over-the-top fruitiness of flavor."
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Great Wine Values
The Prisoner Wine Company “Unshackled” Chardonnay, California
$23.99 14.5% alcohol
PLCB Item #96174
Regularly $26.99
Few brands have shaken up the staid wine business in the 21st century as much as Napa Valley’s The Prisoner Wine Company. From its first 2000 vintage, TPWC built a cult following for its original eponymous wine, a shamelessly jammy red blend that was not fully dry and definitely not cheap: a blend based on an “oops” of a zinfandel whose fermentation stopped too soon, leaving a port-like sweetness. (The company, named after a Francisco Goya painting, focuses on “fighting injustices in our society, especially those tied to our prison and policing systems.”) The wine itself was not unique by any stretch. Plenty of vintners had by this time begun to make sweeter premium wines to appeal to well-heeled younger audiences, many of whom cared more about instant gratification than a wine’s food friendliness or age-ability. What helped this wine stand out and catch on was its unusually gritty aesthetic, with labels featuring discomfiting art on the kinds of dark themes that made grunge popular as a music genre. This gambit paid off and there were soon imitators galore, many aiming to capture the brand’s irreverent skate-punk-turned-finance-bro vibe. In 2016, The Prisoner Wine Company was acquired by one of the world’s biggest drinks conglomerates — Constellation Brands — and TPWC has since opened its own Napa Valley winery and tasting room and spun off a host of brand lines like this one that continue to resonate with a broader audience than those who traditionally drink wine.
Unshackled is a value-oriented line of wines from TPWC that eschews the wine trade’s pedigreed appellation system by simply labeling their products as California wines. This frees them up to tap grape sources outside the usual prestige zones to manage costs on wines like this easy-drinking chardonnay. Transgressive packaging makes the wine stand out on the shelf and hedonistic sensibilities in winemaking result in over-the-top fruitiness of flavor that combines the lushness of peaches and cream with the sweet-tart piquancy of green apples drizzled with honey.
Also available at:
Joe Canal’s in Bellmawr, $17.99
https://www.joecanalsbellmawr.com/
Canal’s Bottlestop in Marlton, $19