Like all good wines, Miss Sachi and I first encountered this on a plane. Jetstar, Australia’s most popular torture airline, wasn’t cheap to fly to Brisbane from Darwin but they gave us a $25 voucher that neatly covered a couple of splits of wine and some cheeses.
We didn’t get around to opening the little bottle you see on your left, my right, until back on the ground and twenty floors up in the Sheraton enjoying an afternoon with Brisbane native and fellow wine-fancier Peter, who liked it very much. On his recommendation we made room in our luggage for two bottles when returning to Thailand.
As far as Australian shirazes go, and by god there’s a lot of them, this is a good’un. Robust with plenty of body and a recognisable character it beats the hell out of your namby-pamby mass-market shirazes like Yellowtail or Jacob’s Creek while managing to stay in their price bracket.
The name refers to some leftie, hippy nonsense on the back of the bottle that i can’t recall now and the name hits at their political leanings. Is there an opposing brand, like Liberal Swill? If you are confused, I’m referring to the main two political parties that grace Australia’s parliaments.
The two bottles we smuggled in lay for some time in the cupboard but are both long gone now. But this Shiraz was a memorable one as it was one of the first that launched us on our odyssey of find boozing. If you find yourself with a bottle of this on hand, give a thought to the odd couple in Bangkok who were inspired by it.