Wine Review: Alice White 2008 Shiraz

Part four of our trip down under takes a bit of a tumble down the rabbit hole. Sure, Alice White is a successful winery. Sure they mass-produce quality grapes in the sun-rich region of South Eastern Australia. Sure they manage to sell buku-bottles in the United States every year at super budget prices.

But it doesn't mean I have to like it.

It doesn't suck. Don't get me wrong. But this $6.99 Shiraz, vinted in 2008, just doesn't get my juices flowing. And, perhaps ironically, this wine does deliver a high flow of juiciness.

In the nose, this shiraz presents a fair amount of fruit. Cherry, plum and strawberry happily co-exist with a mild dose of black pepper.

The sip brings on a fruit-forward, cherry-strawberry duo. It's also very smooth and effortless. Merlot drinkers might approve of this wine. Tannins are light, so drink this wine young! But it isn't all juice and spice and all that's nice. The mid palate just falls apart, which bores me endlessly. Nothing happens there at all. Moments later, the finish returns a moderately obnoxious tangy, tinny, suck on a penny kind of taste. This wine was about to get a solid 3 of 5 glasses until that stupid finish.

Here is a list of some things named Alice that I prefer to Alice White...

• Alice (that girl in Wonderland)
• Alice Cooper (welcome to my nightmare)
• A.L.I.C.E. (the Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity)
• Alice's Restaurant (you can get anything you want...)
• Alice Walker (Pulitizer Prize winning author of The Color Purple)
• Alice (the town in south Texas)

I won't be taking a trip back down Alice White's rabbit hole any time soon. Sometimes bottles labeled "drink me" should be left alone.

2.5 of 5 glasses