$13.00, Retail:

A med body, fruity Australian bottle of shiraz. A fun, tasty bottle of wine that is fruity & not much more than that. A solid, worthwhile bottle for the money, & you can do a lot worse than this bottle. Drink it for what it is, & you will be happy.

Rating: 87 points, drink or hold (over the next 2-3).

P.S.: This is a Parker 91 pointer. I just don't see the 91 points, but a nice bottle nonetheless.

LCC - I had this a while back, didn't take notes but recall similar thoughts as you, decent bottle for the price and a crowd pleasing Shiraz. I really don't understand Parker sometimes in the 89-92pt range for anything under $15 it seems like he awards 3-5 bonus points for QPR. It seems to me like wines he scores the same but are more expensive are closer to his ratings and more complex.

Hmmm cal cabs, I don’t know whether he does or he does not. But, sometimes Parker & WS rate these $8.00 to let’s say $20.00 bottles in the 88 to as high as 93 range, & I just don’t see it. Now, that takes nothing away from these very nice, fine bottle(s) of wine. I just don’t see those kind of #s in many instances.

Let me + this (in this particular case): If you read Parker’s TNs, he says that this drinks like a $50.00 bottle of wine. In a blind taste test, he says that you would think that it is a $50.00 bottle of wine.

Honestly, I did not have this blind. But, there is no way in heck, I would think that this was or should be or drinks like a $50.00 bottle of wine. No way, no how…

I wonder if he was drinking the same wine that I was drinking??? Notice that I say wine, not bottle. What was the rumor that sometimes the “bottle” is hand-picked, chosen for a Parker tasting.

LCC- I heard that rumor. I just don't get it sometimes, I agree that they are not bad bottles of wine, but he especially has a lot of 90pt wines from Spain/Australia that are between $8-$15 and while I tend to find them enjoyable usually feel they are in the 85-87pt range. It just makes me feel like he somehow says hmmm this is pretty good for $6 and when drinking a more expensive wine its the other way around hmm this would be much better for $20.

I admit I sometimes do this myself I guess because not drinking blind expectations are higher for a more expensive bottle than a cheaper bottle (especially if not rated) and when a cheap one is better than expected rate a little higher do to exceeding expectations.

I think the WS ratings are a little different more like hmm this wine is pretty good and they take out a full page ad everymonth 90pts. I know this has been rumered before don't know if true. But you sure see a lot of highly rated Columbia Crest,etc. again I think a lot of these are good QPRs just not 90pts.

I may be completely wrong but when I see a Parker 90pt wine for cheap I assume it will be a good QPR wine and nothing more and generally be good for non-wino friends as you put it.