December 18, 2004
A Special Wine: Not For Drinking
Sooooooooo... I choose wines for any number of reasons. Sometimes I spend a lot on a wine if it looks really good. Sometimes I buy cheap wine because I like the lable. Sometimes I pick one out just because it has a cool name. Sometimes I buy a wine just because I've never heard of it.
Well, I bought this wine because I liked the name and the price was right. I enjoy Shiraz for its bold, berry flavors and not-SO strong tanins. For me, shirazes are great for sipping by the fire or while watching a movie, so when I bought Moon Dog Acre's shiraz I was excited.
Isn't that a cool lable? I was so excited about it that I drank a glass with dinner.
I'm not an expert at wine tasting or anything, but I like what I like. Even so, I try to avoid strong descriptors of wines because there's a good chance that I can't appreciate a wine on the first taste.
This wine is swill. It's demon piss. It is water from which giant sewer goldfish flee in terror. Alcoholics will drink Scope before they'll drink this stuff. My hand to god, it's bad, dude. Real bad.
I drank a whole glass with my dinner and I was really, really upset about the notion of having to drink it for another four nights with dinner. I seriously considered pouring it down the drain, but I hate the idea of a waste. I thought, "Well, maybe it just needs to air out a bit. It'll be better in a couple of days."
Not so.
I took my car to the shop a couple days after I finished off this bottle and I rode in the courtesy van with a nice old lady who talked about wines. I made it a point to counsel her away from buying this wine. It's toxic waste.
Oddly, other people weren't not as amused by the name as I was. They acted as if I should have known it was bad just from that.
Though I disagree with that methodology, the results do speak for themselves.
Moon Dog Acre shiraz of the 2003 vintage is to be avoided and that's all there is to it.
Posted by Flibbertigibbet at December 18, 2004 11:06 AMThis wine recently won a silver medal at VINO Challenge International 2004 Atlanta USA so it couldn't be that bad. I tried it and though it was very smooth.
Problem with wine that is corked is that once so often a bottle can go bad. It's called corkage. Air can get in or there could be a problem with that cork. All labels from all price ranges get this which is why the future for alot of labels will be screw cap. I hope this feedback has been helpful.
Posted by: Andrew at January 17, 2005 11:17 PMI do appreciate the feedback. I've heard of corkage, but I've neer been aware of having experienced it. Sadly, I will not waste money on this wine again because of this.
Further, I am recommending that no one try it.
If corkage is what ruined my experience, they should switch to synthetic corks. Not only are they cheaper, they don't spoil the wine.
Posted by: Flibby at January 18, 2005 08:44 AM"Great Wines Defy Description" -Matt Devan, Syndicated Wine Columnist, Alabama Lagniatte, Dec 13, 2004
2003 Moon Dog Acre Shiraz
"Moon Dog Acre Shiraz, 2003, will be an instant success with lovers of big, juicy fruit flavors and mouth filling wines. Healthy acidity and delicious extracted berry pounded the roof of my mouth from what appeared to be a nucleus of tar." "... this is an excellent Australian wine."
Well, dang! I thought that "demon piss" described it perfectly, but I can see how some may not have reached my level of mastery in the language arts.
I promise, y'all, what I had was really, really bad. As such, I really can't recommend it. No amount of reviews can convince me that it was good.
It does seem that perhaps there was something wrong with my bottle, though, and it warrants another go. Maybe some day my pockets will feel too heavy with cash and I'll be inspired to try it again, but in the meantime, this wine is almost the worse wine I've ever had.
Posted by: Flibby at January 19, 2005 06:15 PMer... this is a response to Andrew's comments :)
in common winetalk, "corkage" refers to the price charged by a restaurant for the "priviledge" of bringing and opening your own wine (instead of buying from their wine list).
i think Andrew is referring to the problem of "corked" wine: wine that has been tainted with a fungus that is sometimes found in the cork. Yes, it makes the wine taste bad.
the problem with air getting into the wine is sometimes called "cork failure". that's where the cork fails in it's primary function: to keep wine in and air out. this can result in a leaky bottle and oxidised wine.
Posted by: kehyi at March 16, 2005 09:47 PM