Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label 2006

This is quite a sound release from Wynns Coonawarra Estate, part of the Treasury Wine Estates' stable.

I have the impression that many like the wines of Wynns Coonawarra Estate, yet mostly I find them agreeable yet unexceptional.  The 2006 vintage of Wynns' "black label" cabernet sauvignon sits closer to the agreeable side of the equation.  A deep ruby in colour, the wine opens to a light-medium intensity fragrance of mixed herbs and chocolate, and is intermingled with nuances of currants.  On the palate, medium tannins support flavours of iodine and earth, and a woody expression of blackcurrants.  There's good safe claret drinking to be had here.  86 points


Abv: 14%
Price: $20s
Website: http://www.wynns.com.au/ (make sure you've downloaded Flash first ...)
Tasted: January 2012

Lustau Dry Amontillado Los Arcos Sherry

Another fortified wine. And a good one. This amontillado sherry is bright in the glass and a pale amber in colour. By way of aroma, it is a light-medium expression of straw, mixed nuts, salt and dried spices. On the palate, the wine hovers between dry and off-dry, with length approaching long, balanced acidity, and represents a moderate intensity excursion through hazelnuts, a touch of walnuts, salt and spices. An excellent wine. 89-90 points

Abv: 18.5%
Price: $28 (375ml)
Website: Emilio Lustau
Tasted: January 2012

Some new wine packaging

Putting to one side the inexplicable awkwardness of taking a photograph in a supermarket, here's a photograph of some new wine packaging that I stumbled across:

It looks very similar to the packaging used for fruit purée.  I suppose we've had cask (bag-in-a-box) wine for years, so it should not be a complete surprise then to find wine packaged in a sachet on sale for a few bucks.  Except, well, that it is.

You even get a winemaker's tasting note, which you can read here.  No grape variety or vintage is specified, though a region is given - South Eastern Australia.  The latter is basically Australia excluding the unruly Western Australians.  As useful to the consumer perhaps as the food labelling laws that see the discerning reader receiving the following helpful guidance: "made in Australia from local and imported ingredients".

I guess wine packaged this way could be useful on a plane, in a backpack or in your pocket.  It may even be environmentally friendly, though I could not find much information on it.  I do know that a straw on the front perhaps would complete the aesthetic.  Who said wine was romantic?