This wine is interesting because of the marketing. As Mike Veseth, The Wine Economist, writes:
19 Crimes — outlaw wine! The name comes Australian history (history wine — oh no!). Great Britain once expelled its most hardened criminals to Australia. Any of 19 crimes could get you sentenced to transportation to Australia — banished to the end of the earth. Who wants to buy a criminal wine?
And, each label, of the core brand features a photo of a sad man — the mug shot of a convicted criminal. Who wants to buy a sad man wine? Who wants to associate themselves with a loser?
So how do they sell a million cases of the stuff every year?
Well, the answer is that 19 Crimes seems to have been rather precisely engineered to appeal to an important demographic — millennial men, especially those who see themselves as a bit of a rogue. Outlaws, if you know what I mean, who identify with others who defy convention. Outlaw wine for self-styled renegades?
Unless, of course, it’s actually good juice. Let’s have a taste:
Generic berry aromas, in between black and red fruit, a muddled, stewed nose with vanilla highlights.
Rich mocha and obvious, pumped up, sweet vanilla on the palate, a confection made worse with very low acidity and no tannins to speak of. It leaves a very intense first impression like being introduced to a loud mouth bore telling one bad joke after another. Someone invented the term “spoofulated” to refer to wine like this—manufactured, tacky, trying way to hard to please, fake wine.
This is about as “outlaw” as your dentist riding a Harley. One of the 19 crimes is that people make this stuff.
Pair with a ridiculously bad country song like “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”
Score: 80
Price: $9
Alc: 13.5%
Exploring the Philosophy of Food and Wine 
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