19 Crimes is an Australian wine brand with a range of inexpensive, everyday wines that are available at supermarkets and other multiples. This isn’t the normal type of wine that features on Frankly Wines, but as it’s so popular I thought it worth trying to see why so many people buy it.
I don’t know if the owners of 19 Crimes – Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) – set out to deliberately compete with the likes of Yellowtail and Barefoot, but that’s what they appear to be aiming at. The brand is built around the story of certain crimes which were punishable by deportation from Britain and Ireland to Australia in the late 18th and 19th century.
Each bottle is sealed with a cork – unusual for Aussie wine nowadays – with one of the 19 Crimes written on it. Encouragement to collect them all? The front labels each feature a famous convict; eight from transportation times plus Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. aka Snoop Dogg in a celebrity tie-in.
Also of note is the innovative use of a proprietary app which makes each label “come alive”. Fair enough, this might be something of a gimmick, but wine needs innovative packaging and marketing for the mass market.
.From 29th April to 19th May the 19 Crimes Red Wine and Sauvignon Block [sic] are included in SuperValu’s wine offers. Here are my notes on the former:
19 Crimes South Eastern Australia Red Wine 2020
So, enough about the label and branding, what’s the wine like? It pours a medium intensity cherry red, implying that this is no blockbuster red. One website I found listed the varieties as Shiraz, Pinot Noir, Grenache, and Cabernet Sauvignon, and it’s the middle two grapes which give it the lighter hue.
The nose initially hits you with sweet vanilla, under which blackberries and fudge compete for attention. The palate is rich, full of vanilla and toasty oak, cherries, chocolate, dark berries, spice and caramel. I don’t have a tech sheet but the richness is obviously partly due to a good dose of residual sugar.
Similar to the Dada Art Series 1 I reviewed back in 2017, this is a wine made for pleasure and designed to match what many people actually like drinking. Most wine drinkers – especially in the Irish market – will swear blind that they only like dry wines, but if there’s an off-dry finish to a red wine like this they won’t complain if they’re not told and don’t notice themselves.
For my personal taste, this wine is a little too confected and clumsy. But I’m not the target market, and I suspect that most people who buy it will like it – which is exactly the point!
- ABV: 13.5%
- RRP: €14.99 down to €10 at SuperValu from 29th April to 19th May 2021
- Source: Media sample
I’ve not tried this range of wines and your excellent notes make me think this would not be my style of wine. Also, apparently they brought out a beer under the 19 Crimes banner as well.
I tried the 19 Crimes when we were still back in the states and did not care for it. It was too sweet for me. The packaging is attractive and overall it is gimmicky. It went for about $15 back then. Not worth the price of admission. We can get wines a thousand times better here in Portugal for a couple of euros. We are spoiled! Viva Portugal! 😉
It’s not a wine I would choose for myself as I found it too sweet as well, but my wife loved it. You are definitely spoilt for choice in Portugal, and very luck with low taxes on wine!
It is a food and wine paradise over here. We are super fortunate to be here.