Wine review: Wakefield Promised Land 2008

Yellow Tail has skewed the public's perception of not just expensive Australian wine, but all Australian wine. The high-end producers lament that no one knows the Aussies make wine that doesn't cost $7 a bottle, while the popularly-priced producers (as they prefer to be called) must compete strictly on price. Against Yellow Tail, quality doesn't seem to matter as much.

Which is too bad, because there is an entire range of cheap Australian wines, mostly red blends, that are worth tasting. This is something that the Wine Curmudgeon keeps meaning to write about, but never seems to get around to. So consider this review a step in that direction.

Blending shiraz with cabernet sauvignon seems to make these kinds of wines more interesting than their single varietal counterparts. At least that's the case for the Promised Land ($12, sample). I was more than pleasantly surprised; this had lots of bright red fruit, a little zingy acid, and even some tannins (the last two of which are usually absent from a Yellow Tail-style wine). This is a food wine, and don't overlook it for a Father's Day cook-in — burgers, pizza, and barbecue.