2008 'THE WHIP' SHIRAZ - NICE LABEL, SHAME ABOUT......

Living in a wine producing nation, we are afforded the opportunity to bottle wines under a private or personal label. Simply put, like most wine producing nations, we make too much wine, and the surplus has to go somewhere. With the Australian dollar running at a high, off-loading our generic warm climate wines from the inland irrigated regions to unsuspecting bargain seeking Brits isn’t necessarily the option it once was. What better than offering local punters the chance to bottle up a couple of hundred bottles and slap their own label on it? In principle, this is a great idea and a bit of fun, but there is no guarantee that the wine is going to be particularly good.

‘The Whip’ Shiraz is a case in point. It is a wine from South Australia’s Riverland, bottled as a private label, not intended for resale. The wine itself is somewhat jammy and thin, not undrinkable, but not altogether enjoyable. It is Australia’s equivalent of the so-called ‘holiday wines’ one might encounter (or more likely one’s friends and elderly relatives might encounter) while on vacation; perfectly gluggable when relaxing back in the European sun, but horrendous when not imbibed in situ.

There can be plenty of fun to be had with private labels such as ‘The Whip’, though in this case, the best feature about the wine is the label, as the contents are best avoided. Advice from these pages is to taste widely before committing to a large bottling run, and to drink up within 12 or so months of bottling. Grange this is most definitely not!

2008 ‘THE WHIP’ SHIRAZ
Producer: Private label – producer not declared
Variety: Syrah/Shiraz
Vintage: 2008
Region: Riverland, South Australia
ABV: Not declared
Closure: Natural cork
Retail Price: N/a
Date tasted: 30 October 2010

Tasting Note:
Bright cherry red. Alluring bouquet of plum jam, cherry confit, blackberry confiture. Sweet fruited up-front, palate similar to nose, simple and lacking depth, short on the finish, which has a bit of bite, rather like an American Pit Bull on a bad day.
Score: 11/20