Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Barossa on the cheap

If you get to Trader Joes in the next couple of days and don't mind the taste of prunes, look for this Australian red.My two favorite regions for red wines in Australia are Barossa and Maclaren-Vale. These two areas produce some of the most flavorful and intense cabernet , shiraz and Rhone grapes in the world. I equate the style of wines with the powerful zins and syrahs from the Sierra foothills here in California. The nice thing about most Aussie wines is that they are underpriced and come with the convenient screw-top. As I mentioned earlier, prunes is the big taste , along with all the nice richness you find in a Barossa shiraz. At $ 7.99 , this Cook Shed Barossa shiraz is the least expensive wine from this area I have ever seen-inspite of the low price I feel it is not the bottom of the heap in taste......it's actually really good and something to get before it is gone, which should be soon. I give it a solid 7 swiggs.