Whenever a fellow Master Sommelier invites you to lunch you say yes and ask questions later. Doug Frost MS, MW invited a group of San Francisco sommeliers to the Fifth Floor restaurant to meet John Casella, owner of the popular Yellow tail brand of wines from Australia. We blind-tasted eight wines, two of which were from John's Yellow tail Reserve line. The first flight of Shirazes included d'Arenberg’s The Dead Arm Shiraz while the second set pitted John's Yellowtail Reserve Cabernet against Penfolds Thomas Hyland Cabernet Sauvignon and others.

There was some undeniably good winemaking on display, and the Yellow tail Reserve wines certainly held their own, but these kinds of wines are made for a market, instead of being from a place, and I'm not so convinced that the market necessarily wants this kind of drink to begin with. Wine made by marketers almost always involves a whole lot of marketing! Doug made an excellent point that as sommeliers we need to keep in mind that we're often dealing with a niche segment of wine buyers and that most wine consumers are looking for something gulpable at a good price. Hey no arguing with that! I'm looking for gulpability and value too, I just choose to look elsewhere.  

jessebeckerMS

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