I'm currently reading through George M. Taber's A Toast to Bargain Wines: How Innovators, Iconoclasts, and Winemaking Revolutionaries Are Changing the Way the World Drinks (that's WAY too long a title, Mr. George though I'm sure you didn't dream it up, at least not on your own), and have reached the part where Mr. George talks about the landing in America of Yellow Tail, potentially one of the world's most famous Australian bargain wines.
The book in itself is fascinating, and I'll probably write about it when I'm done reading it. The section I'm referring to discusses how Yellow Tail has Italian roots, originally bore the name Casella, and why it's a popular bargain wine. Taber says the wine was originally brought into the American market (which sooner or later means the Canadian market too) as a bargain alternative to Rosemont and pricier Australian wines.
To bring it to a more personal level, when I met my boyfriend, he was steadfast that Yellow Tail Shiraz was his wine. I don't remember thinking, "Ugh, an Australian drinker," but I think I remember a worry that he might not be adventurous beyond Yellow Tail.
That was not the case - my boyfriend is not the wine-drinking version of a person who is a die-hard fan of American college football (I've heard stories, people). In any case, I do come back to the Yellow Tail every so often because it's a consistently enjoyable wine. I might go so far as to say, after one has ripped their tastebuds with Baby Duck or Alberta vodka
(which I understand once had a certain cardboard content percentage), Yellow Tail could be a gateway wine, introducing an appreciation for wine and its flavours.
All this to say that I will come back and re-analyze this wine when I've had less of it, but if you want a trustworthy bottle that isn't outrageously expensive but still performs as a good-tasting beverage, Yellow Tail, for all that it might not tickle more educated wine drinkers' left armpit, it certainly scratches my itch for a tasty, budget-range wine.
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