Wine review - Winton Road - Old Vine Barossa - Barossa Valley Shiraz 2014
We picked this bottle up at Liquorland (Coles Bottle Shop) the other day for half price at $20, so thought we'd have a try, and see if that $40 normal price was worth it. We love our Barossa Shiraz, so knew we were pretty safe, and after checking its score on Vivino (4.0 stars), we bought a bottle to try. It even came in a cardboard gift box!
The Brand
To see what "brands" of wine are retailer-owned or licensed, a good list is maintained at https://www.therealreview.com/who-makes-my-wine/. These wines are sometimes blamed for putting price pressure on, and taking shelf space away from Australian winemakers. Crackerwines.com.au goes so far as to refuse to review such wines, and recommends that you avoid purchasing them. Oh well.. too late! I already took it home.
Now to review the wine...
Not knowing the background to the wine, we poured a glass each and had a taste. First impressions were it was a good wine. It was fruity and rich, and had a delecate oak flavour with a smooth tannin. We really liked it, and could see why it had a 4 start rating on Vivino. Not a bad wine at all, in fact really good for $20, but not a wine we would buy at the normal $40 price tag.
It went very well with our roast lamb and vegetables for dinner that night, and the second glass didn't disappoint either. Some wines do die off pretty quickly once openned, but this one still had some good life in it, which was very pleasing.
We agreed with the 4 star rating, based on it being $20, and would probably lose half a star at $40 based on lower value for money.
Having read up on the labels used by the big retailers to market their mass-produced wines, I think I'll keep my eyes open for the smaller winemakers' wines, and try to support the owner-operator wineries a bit more. This was a good wine, but I wonder how much goes back into the wineries they source their grapes from, and how much harder the small wineries have to work to cover their costs because of the competition.
I would rather pay extra to know exactly where the grapes are grown, and get a true appreciation of each winemaker's work which goes into their wines. I would like to be able to visit the vineyards from where the wines I drink are harvested. I think it is important to support the smaller wineries. I believe they also make far better wines, being able to have their hands-on skills better used on the smaller scale production environment.
There is good wine, and there is cheap wine, but very seldom do you find a cheap, good wine!!
Until next time... Cheers!!
I live 5 minutes out of Mclaren Vale. South Australia does some excellent wine :)
It sure does. Perth has the Swan Valley, and then down south we have Margaret River. Very different climates, and very different wines. Some we like, others taste like dirt... South Australi seems to have a really good climate for wine.
We'll hopefully be making a trip out to Adelaide at the end of next year for a wedding. Will definitely be fitting in a couple of winery visits in. I'll have to pick up a Mclaren Vale and review it soon :)
I had a nice bottle from Mt Barker and assumed it was the Mt Barker here in the Adelaide Hills, but apparently it was one of yours.
The great Southern Region does have some really good products coming out of it. I don't think I've had any wine from Mount Barker though, so will look out for it. I do love me some Mt Barker Chicken ;)
It's really a matter of personal taste. What I say is crap, someone else may like... You don't know unless you try, and keep track of your own personal tastes.
Is it product promotion? liked your blog. upvote @bmj
I think it's more like owning multiple brands and taking the lion's share of the market, maximizing profit and minimizing supply costs. The shelves show a great brand variety, but they're all owned by the same shop.
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