I was walking through Whole Foods and saw a display for 19 Crimes Australian Red blend. The description was a medium body blend with notes of blackberry.

I was curious and started reading the story on the bottle. The Australian wine is named after a practice that began in Britain in 1783. There were 19 crimes that would normally end in a death sentence for criminals. Britain decided instead of capital punishment, they would just put the criminals on a ship and send them to live in Australia. Many of the criminals died at sea during the journey. The ones who made it to Australia built a new life, building a colony from scratch. The wine celebrates the culture and new life that was created.

There are 19 corks that are randomly used in the 19 Crimes wine.

Each cork has the name of one of the 19 crimes that would result in a person being sentenced to “Punishment by Transportation”.

After enjoying this wine, I would describe it a little differently than Whole Foods did. I found it to be very Full bodied and on the sweet side. It did smooth out some after putting it through an aerator several times.

Does the label or story of the wine draw you to try something new?

~Cheers

~Let’s keep the conversation going and the wine flowing!