Monday, September 7, 2009

Casella "Yellow Tail" 2004 Shiraz-Cabernet (Australia)

I bought this bottle many moons ago in New York State ... it was around the time Yellow Tail Shiraz was big in Ontario, I had not seen any of their other wines except for the Shiraz so I decided I must try it ... I picked this one because it had a snazzy purple label. Not sure what possessed me not to drink it right away, but I got home, stuck it on my wine rack and forgot about it. Tonight, as I was searching for something to have I spied the funky purple and thought, "oh boy, that's probably very interesting about now." Curiosity got me to open this bottle tonight, it was definitely the bottle to open and try. Unwrapping the capsule exposed a plastic cork, usually a sure sign of a drink now wine - and I was way past that. The nose was quite pruney and unpleasant, so I expected the worst on the taste - the things I'll taste just to learn my lesson. The palate was not as awful as you might think, it sure wasn't the fresh and fruity wine you expect from the Yellow Tail brand, but it wasn't all vinegary either. I found smooth, sweet dried fruit, almost port-like, but without the richness and lush flavours of port. Not completely horrible, but certainly not great ... experiment over, time to open something else.

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