Australian wine gets a bad rap, but it’s not all Yellow Tail
The devaluation of Australian wines in the eyes of American buyers is largely driven by the runaway success of one single bargain brand.
It’s a shame that fine independent wines from Australia have been so hard to find in recent years. The sole upside is that when one does find a bottle from a genuine independent, small-scale vintner like this one, the price tends to be more than fair for the quality of wine inside the bottle, making it tempting to stock up.
Sadly, the devaluation of Australian wines in the eyes of American buyers is largely driven by the runaway success of one single bargain brand: Yellow Tail makes gluggable, chuggable, sweetish wines that are so cheap and so popular that their proliferation of flavors and styles has more or less swallowed whole the Australian section of most liquor stores. In the process, an entire generation of wine shoppers has concluded that the only wines made Down Under must be plonk.
Australian wineries do make a stunning range of more ambitious wines as well, from soulful reds to bracing whites and everything in between. Where Australia’s bulk wines come from the continent’s hot and irrigated inland flats, this wine’s fruit is grown closer to the coast, near Adelaide. Here in the foothills of Barossa, vineyards with very different climate and terrain produce considerably less fruit per acre, but their berries are hyper-saturated in color, flavor, and aromatics, without tipping over into the cooked flavors of overripe grapes. This wine’s scent conjures fresh blackberries, cherry pie, and Chinese five-spice, making it an ideal partner for the heartier meats we cook toward the tail end of grilling season.
First Drop “Mother’s Milk” Shiraz
Barossa, Australia
14.5% ABV
PLCB Item #100033583
On sale for $17.99 through Oct. 4 (regularly $19.99)
Also available at: WineWorks in Marlton, N.J. ($17.98; wineworksonline.com), Wine Warehouse in Voorhees and Mantua, N.J. ($17.99; winewarehousenj.com), Super Buy Rite in Moorestown and Hopewell, N.J ($18.99; moorestownbuyrite.com, hopewellbuyrite.com)
