A downright impressive red wine at a bargain price

Matthew Jukes explains why he expects a cult price tag for this intriguing wine.

Matthew Jukes
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published
in Features

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2012 5OS Project Shiraz Viognier, McLaren Vale, South Australia (£15.99, reduced to £14.99 each if you buy a case of 12 bottles.Visit virginwines.co.uk, or call0843 224 1001).

Every so often I throw caution to the wind and recommend a wine that pushes all of the vinous boundaries. This week's "five o'clock somewhere" wine is just such a tipple. With virtually nothing to go on in the way of a wine label, except for what looks like a menacingly vivid tattoo of a wildcat, this wine is somewhat of an enigma.

Clawing away at the surface I have determined that the shiraz fruit comes from a windswept escarpment in Willunga, in McLaren Vale, and the viognier used is in the form of skins, not pulp so as not to mark the wine too heavily with musk.

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The man behind this daring creation turns out to be a giant called Steve Grimley. Do I like this wine? I really don't know, is the honest answer. Why then is it on this page? I hear you cry. Because there is something arresting, brash, pulsating and downright impressive about a serious red, from prime turf, which tastes imposing and confident and that comes in at a tiddly fifteen quid. I expected a cult price tag, so thank you Virgin for finding a shockingly good bargain.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com).

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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