2006 Vinaceous Red Right Hand

I just had my first introduction to the Vinaceous wines, with their 2006 bottling of Red Right Hand.  I must say that I usually take no heed to labels when purchasing or tasting wine.  One must not judge a book by it’s cover, or a wine by it’s label.  But the packaging is great.  It hearkens to days past, when stage performances were the main source of entertainment for the masses.  It conjured up images of times when many went blind or crazy from indulging in the “green fairy” more commonly known as Absinthe.  Traveling carnivals have since become a thing of the past.  I digress, so now on to this cool wine…

My initial presumptions of this wine were quite wrong.  Coming from South Australia, and with an alcohol content of 14.5%, I assumed this was going to be another flabby New World fruit bomb.  I was pleasantly surprised upon first taste.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of fruit in this blend of Shiraz, Grenache and Tempranillo.  But it had wonderful structure and spice to make this wine surprisingly balanced.  You definitely get some heat from the alcohol, but other than that this was a well made wine.  The Shiraz brings some nice blueberry and dark fruit notes.  The Grenache ads a nice smokey, savory complexity.  The Tempranillo spices things up with crushed white and black peppercorns, and a slight touch of tar.

I would give this wine a rating of 86 points.  You can find it for about $20 in a retail shop.