Bleasdale "The Old Press" Cabernet Malbec

I was actually looking for the Bleasdale Second Innings Malbec, which is rated 90 points at about $16. That was sold out at Vines, but in its place they had a sale on this one - normally $39 marked down to $26. I bought two, one to drink and one for a Christmas gift. We gave the gift first without tasting it.

Well, turns out it we had nothing to worry about in giving this gift blind. Bleasdale is from Langhorne Creek, Australia, with 160 years of experience. The Old Press is 76% Cab Sauv and the rest Malbec. I poured a big glass and put it beside a lamp: the reflection of the etching on the glass was perfectly reflected in the inky black wine. Beautiful, dark purple colour. The bouquet has lots of alcohol, and dark berries.

The wine itself is a viruoso. Self-confident and strong. Tannins are balanced but could still use some aging (I didn't aerate this one). Delicious blackberry, plum, violet, cherry flavours would match well with blue or hard cheeses, lamb, pasta, or on its own. A complex, impressive and mature wine.

91 points. $26 (sale price) at Vines.

Pirramimma Petit Verdot 2005

This wine has great "curb appeal": a tall, elegant bottle with a simple, classy label. And once you get inside you're not disappointed. Petit Verdot is usually used in Bordeaux blends but isn't often seen as a single varietal. This wine from the McLaren Vale is deep purple in colour, and has a fantastic, assertive, earthy bouquet. I got tastes of leather, earth and blackberry, strong but it held together nicely and the acids and tannins were balanced. I imagine this would improve with age or aeration. Definitely a match for strong cheeses or meats. Bacon-wrapped filet mignon?

Pirramimma is delicious, and would be impressive to bring to a friend's house for dinner. I can't see any red wine drinker not loving it.

90 points. $27 at deVines, but I think I got it on sale at Sobeys for around $22.

Nugan Estate Riverina Durif 2007

The CROWN 2 winner. I felt like I needed a big red after the last one.

Durif is another term for Petit Syrah. Deep rich colour and a lemony plum bouquet. Actually, once I noticed the lemon it's quite obvious. Some leather and blackberry tastes as well, very interesting. To be honest, not as good as I remember it from cheap wine night, but still a class act. Probably would benefit from an hour in the decanter. I would proudly serve this with a bacon cheeseburger, or duck a l'orange if you want to go to the other end of the culinary scale.

89 points. $14 (as of CROWN 2).

C.R.O.W.N. 2

Cheap Wine Night has been rebranded as "Cheap Red or White Night", aka C.R.O.W.N. The second one was set for April 25th, which is ANZAC Day so the theme was Australia and New Zealand. Due to scheduling problems we had to change the date to April 18th, but kept the theme anyway. Couples were asked to bring two bottles with a maximum budget of $40 combined.

Without further ado, the results:

1 - Nugan Estate Durif Petit Syrah 2007 (Riverina, NSW) $14.00
2 - Thorn Clarke Shotfire Shiraz 2006 (Barossa Valley) $27.99
3 - Peter Lehmann Shiraz 2006 (Barossa Valley) $17.00
4 - Heartland Stickleback Red 2007 (South Australia) $15.70
5 - Main Divide Riesling 2007 (Waipara Valley, NZ) $25.95
6 - Nugan Estate Pinot Grigio 2008 (King Valley, Victoria) $13.99
7 - Hardys Riesling Gewurtztraminer 2008 (South Australia) $10.99
8 - Angove Nine Vines Shiraz Viognier 2007 (South Australia) $15.99
9 - Roy's Hill Merlot 2006 (Hawkes Bay, NZ) $20.95
10 - Bleasedale Potts' Catch Verdelho 2008 (Langhorne Creek, South Australia) $15.95
11 - Wolf Blass Eaglehawk Semillon Chardonnay 2007 (Barossa Valley) $13.79
12 - Tempus Two Wilde Chardonnay 2007 (Adelaide) $14.99

This time I ranked the results based on how each person rated a wine compared to their own rankings. In other words, for each person I took the score and assigned a ranking of 1 to the top score down to 12 for their lowest. This way it doesn't matter if somebody's scoring system is out of scale with others, as long as they are consistent within themselves. Interestingly, the #1 wine was only ranked #1 by one individual, but was the second choice of almost everyone else. Wines 2-5 had more first-place votes than the Nugan Durif.

Next time we'll probably do away with scores altogether, and just have people rank their own list 1-12. Also, I just noticed a slight calculation error: the Angove Shiraz Viognier should have been one spot higher. Well, I had tasted twelve wines prior to doing up the spreadsheet that night, so a little human error is to be expected. I suppose next time I could spit out the wine to stay sharp (OK, that's not going to happen).

The two Nugan Estates were a revelation: both were excellent and great value at 14 bucks each. The Shotfire was a close second, and Peter Lehmann was another fine wine for a decent price.

Penfold's Rawson's Retreat Shiraz Cabernet 2007

So, I left the rest of the Finca for Kris to try, and opened another bottle instead. We've had this one before - I always thought it was pretty good. But after that last malbec, it seems very ordinary. No bouquet, not much taste - some pepper and currant - and little sustain. Considering Australians are usually bold, juicy and full of flavour, this is fairly bland. A good table wine, but not a great one.

83 points. $9.79 at Superstore (we seem to be spending a lot of time there).

Lindemans Cawarra Cabernet Merlot 2007

I'm not a huge fan of the mega-producers of the wine world (Mondavi for example), but I will happily buy a bottle of Lindemans anytime. It's pretty much guaranteed to be an above-average wine for a good price.

Here's the skinny on the name "Cawarra" from Lindemans itself: "The LINDEMANS Cawarra Range is a tribute to the vision of Dr Henry J Lindeman, who in 1843, purchased a property in the Hunter Valley named 'Cawarra' (an Aboriginal word meaning 'beside running water') and planted his first vines." OK, that doesn't really do anything for me, but the wine, as usual, is pretty good.

This is a very mellow red, easy to drink any maybe a little thin. It's got a plum colour and taste, and some backbone with a high alcohol content. It wants to be in the "very good" category, but falls a bit short although just barely. This would be a good complement for lasagna or Greek food, where you really want just a decent red to slurp. It's not blowing my mind, but it's quite good. Slurpable. I wouldn't buy it at $20, but for the nine bucks or whatever it was, it's more than a good value. I'm reading these comments, and I think it's a little better of a wine than I'm making it sound. Unlike many single-digit reds, I'm very much looking forward to another glass. I'd prefer this to the Sonora Ranch below, for example. I doubt we'll need to re-cork the bottle before we go to bed.

82 points. Under $10.