Review for Tuesday - 03/21/2006 by Bill

As the commercial goes, this one is 'smooth - but not rich'. There's not a lot going on here. Pleasant enough but very forgetable. As Ssezi notes, this is one for Belle and Sebastian fans. I have no idea what that means, but if it pertains to you, perhaps you'll know. Approx $10.

No detectable sulfates! Woo hoo! There's a selling point. If you are a closet sulfate hater, (...and I don't just mean someone with a mild dislike of sulfates here, I'm talking deeply-ingrained raised-from-birth-to-hate-sulfates kinda person...) maybe this is your wine. If you're looking for anything else in a wine, anything at all, avoid for $15. Also avoid for $10. On sale for $2.99 with a free bottle of 2003 Yellow Tail Reserve Shiraz? Avoid Avoid Avoid.

Despite what is claimed enthusiastically on the audio, this isn't wine #4, nor is it week #14 - but of all the disinformation we propegate, this should be the least of your concerns. Unfortunately, even sulfate haters will find no solace in this wine. Optimistically it's a ho hum wine, although some of us felt it earned a status of 'OK'! If you've got it, try to drink it. If you don't have it, leave it on the store shelf.

This is the best of the wines this week, and for $10 it's a tremendous buy. If there's a knock against it, it's that this is a bit of a crowd pleasing tat-less wine. If you're looking for deep character in a wine, this may not score as one of your favorites - but you're still very likely to find it a pleasant drink for the price. It should be mentioned that this is also a wine brought by Steve, so it earns mad props by defying all the odds to score such good reviews. ;)

I'll just quote John on this one: "Uh, I don't like this really at all. It's just not that good." I must comment as well that this is yet again one of the top ranked wines from my local overpriced wine store. Their rankings are based on the number of customer purchases occurring out of their wine tastings. What we've learned is that North Andover residents have very poor taste in wine. Who'da thunk.

How much fun can you have for $9.99? More than is offered by this wine I'm sure. However, this isn't a bad wine and some of the winers really enjoyed it. Since none of us greatly disliked it, it's a safe buy for $10 and you may be lucky and find yourself really digging it.

$20 marked down to $15. May sound like a good deal, but here are our tasting notes: skank on the nose, starts off salty (yes, salty), then a little bit of spice, followed by a lot of nastiness. Don't be lured by the sale prices out there - it's on sale for a reason and virtually no price is a fair price for this terrible wine. And here's a good reason why Real World Winers is the place to go for your real world, down to earth wine reviews: With a score of 91, this is what Robert Parker says about this carp: *"The 2003 Shiraz l’Explorateur (5,000 cases produced) exhibits a dense ruby/purple color along with a big, rich bouquet of melted licorice, blackberry liqueur, pepper, and a hint of road tar. Ripe, full-bodied, supple-textured, and long, it should drink well for 5-10 years. Kudos to proprietor Jonathan Malthus for his work in the Barossa."* Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate ***Road Tar? Road Tar***, Robert? And this is a good thing? Amazink.