Confessions of a Wino

When I turned 18 we did a sort of lad’s rite of passage thing.  Some guys did sickly things like inhaling a whole cigar.  Others did amateur self harm (but not on Iggy Pop’s scale).

The idea I most admired was the guy who ate a whole pot of jam.  This doesn’t sound very rock and roll does it?!  But have you ever tried it?  The first spoonful is delicious but by the time you are half way through the jar, it is getting sickly to the point of making you gip.  In that sense it’s a bit like drinking an Aussie Shiraz.

The one I tried most recently was Wakefield St Andrews Clare Valley Shiraz, 2000.

It came from a mixed case from the Sunday Times Wine Club and was probably about £20 a few years ago.  Having nurtured it my “cellar” for a few years I felt it time to give the marque another chance.

First taste was of prunes and strawberrry jam plus a touch of marmite.  At 14% it is a full on wine with a heady nose and almost overpowering aroma.

The first glass was awesome but it quickly became too jammy and chewy a couple of glasses later.

Like a nice jam, Aussie Shiraz should be consumed sparingly and never in large quantities.  Wakefield St Andrews is typical of the ones I have tasted in my all too short Wino career.

And my forfeit?  I paid the penalty of not coming up with a sufficiently acceptable idea by undergoing an enforced forfeit.  I got away lightly with having my head flushed down the toilet.  I was lucky, I could have been forced to drink a whole bottle of Shiraz…

This entry was posted on Friday, April 20th, 2007 at 5:23 pm and is filed under australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.