About The Last Bottle I Would Buy

When did it become good marketing to put the face of a convicted criminal on a wine label? Martha Stewart aside (and I don't think that she is a particularly good character reference except for their shared criminal records). For the record, I have never bought anything with Martha's face on it either, but I certainly wouldn't be induced to spend money on any product that featured crime and old Snoop. Guess I just do not get what the advertising geniuses behind this are trying to do.

Something tells me you/we are not the target demographic for the wine!

I had never heard of it, so I did a quick google and it appears it has been around for years, with different images on each vintage label.

The 2016 retailed for less than $7 and was described as "A blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache from South Eastern Australia. The wine is aged in 100% American oak and has 12.0 g/L of residual sugar"

More frightening than the criminals on the labels!

"A blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache from South Eastern Australia. The wine is aged in 100% American oak and has 12.0 g/L of residual sugar"

More frightening than the criminals on the labels!

Agree!

Can't wait for them to bring out their 'War Crimes' blend of Riesling based wine with the picture of Adolph Hitler on it,

PS - I might pick up a bottle of the 9 Crimes, pour it out and decant my next blind tasting wine into it (after suitably careful rinsing, of course).

It's "19 Crimes". The New Hampshire state liquor stores have carried the full line for years. It and Yellow Tail are among the few Australian wines they sell. The name seems to be a play on the way that Australia got its start as a British penal colony. All the pictures on the labels I've seen have been of early British convicts who were sentenced to Transportation for Life. I've never tried the wines--the labels always put me off.

-Paul W.

Seen them here in town but passed!

Before Corona, I usually found 2-4 tastings a week. One of the lower-quality places once had six different 19-crimes tastes the same day. I had been seeing enormous displays of them in grocery stores, and I was curious. SWEET, SWEET, SWEET! and awful. They brag that their Cal-style malo acidless Chardonnay has something like 16% alcohol. I could not continue the tastes. It is unbelievably bad rotgut.

Forgot to mention this.

We all know that critter wine tends to be the manufacturer's lowest quality. This is extreme critter wine. There is a gimmick that if you click your cellphone on something on the bottle, you will get a history of the criminal pictured on the bottle. Of course, that has nothing to do with the wine.

I also believe that this series of wines is based on the success of "The Prisoner", gross, unbalanced "big and bold" wine. This is extremely gross, extremely unbalanced, wildly "big and bold", and really totally undrinkable.

I found the 19 Crimes Cali-Red, the wine pictured in the topic note, at the big NH state liquor store in south Nashua. All the previous 19 Crimes wines I've seen have been Aussies, but Cali-Red is, as the name implies, made from California grapes. Other than Bonny Doon, I've always been leery of gimmick wines (and even Bonny Doon struck out just now with their Bulle Moose de Cigare wine-in-a-can). I'm glad I didn't waste my time and money on 19 Crimes.

-Paul W.

Funny that you mention Bonny Doon. I appreciated Grahm's quirky sense of humour, more that I did some of his wines.

I recall years ago when I did a tasting of his Cigar Volante (his take on a CNduP) against a decent one about $5 cheaper in our market and the Rhone blew it away.