Bailey's of Glenrowan - 2015 "19 Crimes" red blend [Australia]

Perhaps you've seen this in the store - it's a 2015 Australian red blend called "19 Crimes" released by Bailey's of Glenrowan, a winery located in the Australian state of Victoria. I haven't reviewed an Ozzy wine in some time; last time I think was a rehash of a 2012 post which can be found here.

Australia has an interesting history in wine. As noted in previous posts, wine was first introduced to Australia by James Busby in 1831. An immigrant from England, he brought over vines from France and Spain and kicked off the now-famous Australian wine industry. And in another historical note, the name "19 Crimes" is a nod to Australia's history as a penal colony; starting in 1788, an Englishman committing (and being convicted of) one of nineteen crimes would result in "punishment by transportation" - i.e. banishment to Australia, a world away. In fact, the guy on the front of the bottle is an actual historical booking photo of a convict sent to the Land Down Under (apologies for the Men at Work reference.)

I'm having a surprisingly-hard time finding the grapes that go into this bottle. I've seen three different sources with three different estimations of the contents; the 19 Crimes website seems quite caught up in the marketing and has barely any information. So I'm going into this a bit blind.

The wine is blood-red in the glass, with not much aroma to speak of.

I was immediately struck by the fruitiness of the wine. It's rather pleasant with strong up-front flavors of dark fruit and cherry skins. The fruit flavors, not at all sugary, are very strong and dominate much of the wine's taste. In terms of texture, it has a respectable bite to it - nothing objectionable, just enough dryness to keep me interested. It's not "hot" (as in high in alcohol content) just has a bit of a sharp texture. On the aftertaste, which is long and lingering, I'm detecting some coffee beans in there, a bit, spices, and currant.

If we talk about berry flavors - a good benchmark for discussing analogous wine flavors - this wine is sort of a Concord grape meets blackberry, in contrast to strawberry and cherry that accompany some French reds. It's not sweet or sugary at all, but instead quite robust. I like the green glass bottle, and the design is pretty striking as well so it certainly sets it apart on the shelf. Overall, a good bottle, widely available (not not super expensive - I think this was $11.)

As a nice departure from some of the other, softer wines out there, it paired nicely with my dinner - homemade ancho chile burgers with garlic sour cream topping and roasted potatoes/broccoli over arugula.