WTN: Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio 2007

South Eastern Australia

Moderate dark yellow in the glass.

Peppery, bitter citrus rind on the nose.

Tangy, lemon, bitter grapefruit rind and intense lime, peppery, very clean, light weight but with good intensity.

A peppery, mouthwatering, lemony finish.

Purchased at $11.20 (Canadian).

[David M. Bueker]

The horror...the horror...the horror...

Never had it myself, but your description sounds appetising.

You know, while Yellow Tail's wines might be a bit boring and lack any distinctive character, they are reliable, and not badly made. Crowd pleasers too, which has it's place. I don't buy them, but will drink them if that's what's available or offered. You can do much worse . . . .

There is no doubt about it [yellow tail] is a great success story. The Pinot Grigio is one wine that has done well for them in the SIWC which judges wines against food. Casella's have sold millions of cases of [yellow tail]. I'm not sure what the current volume of sales is but in '04 it was the number one imported wine brand in the USA (10.3% of the imported wine category), and occupied top spot among Aussie wine imported into the US with with 33.9% of the total.

Mike

Yellowtail is a revolution. Very successful commercially, and to those who drink it I'm sure it's better by miles than what you could get for the price ten years ago.

On the other hand it has contributed greatly to the bland-ization of wine. To anyone with $12 to spend, I'm sure you can do better with some small effort, although you can probably do worse too. I've never had the Pinot Grigio, just the reds and chard.

When the wine option is Yellow Tail, I look for a beer or spirits. Am I a wine snob? Well...I don't eat at Mcdonalds, but I'll eat something just as bad at a locally owned diner. Don't know what that makes me.

The horror...the horror...the horror...

Yellowtail is a revolution. Very successful commercially, and to those who drink it I'm sure it's better by miles than what you could get for the price ten years ago.

On the other hand it has contributed greatly to the bland-ization of wine. To anyone with $12 to spend, I'm sure you can do better with some small effort, although you can probably do worse too. I've never had the Pinot Grigio, just the reds and chard.

When the wine option is Yellow Tail, I look for a beer or spirits. Am I a wine snob? Well...I don't eat at Mcdonalds, but I'll eat something just as bad at a locally owned diner. Don't know what that makes me.

Yup, that makes you and David both wine snobs.

Walt

I agree that I wouldn't want to drink Yellow Tail everyday (just as I wouldn't want to drink any other wine every day), I always keep an open mind and am always willing to at least try something and, if it's okay, to say so and, if it's not okay, to also say so.

To anyone with $12 to spend, I'm sure you can do better with some small effort, although you can probably do worse too.

If you keep your eyes peeled around here, you can find it on sale for $7 - and for that price it's a solid label.

[David M. Bueker]

I am proud to be a wine snob!

I don't think it is snobbish to choose to drink only wine that interests you. If we were in this only for the price consideration, we'd all be tossing cans of concentrate into garbage bins in our basements and crowing to our frinds that the end result only cost $2 a bottle (this is an actual quote and scenario from someone I know. They didn't get it when I said that highest volume for least dollars was not my oenological goal in life.)

I agree with Matt that while these wines are reliable, you can do better, assuming it matters to you, for the same or a little more money.

And I'd drink Lindeman's Bin 65 (for instance) for the same price or less all day long, compared to the Yellow Tail Chard. A friend who used to be the local Yellow Tail rep told me that not having to make decisions like that was the biggest seller for their wines.

I won't defend Yellow Tail as a 'quality' wine, but on the grad student budget, it does serve its purpose. But if someone would kindly provide me with a case of Grange, I promise never to drink Yellow Tail again . . . .

Ryan, there are loads of interesting stuff down in the same price levels - Robin regularly posts about this sort of wine.

I always figue that if you can have something a bit more interesting for the same money - it doesn't need to be Grange to be worth drinking!

I won't defend Yellow Tail as a 'quality' wine, but on the grad student budget, it does serve its purpose. But if someone would kindly provide me with a case of Grange, I promise never to drink Yellow Tail again . . . .

Ryan, as a grad student in the '80s I was drinking Torres Sangre de Toro as a "house" wine, with splurges for older Zins and the occasional Cru Bourgeois Bdx. For white wines, we generally looked to Alsace for lower-level offerings. The prices of these wines have certainly gone up, but then again so have grad student stipends (my first-year stipend was $550 a month to live on Manhattan). These days, I'd be drinking Beaujolais, Muscadet, NZ SB and some cheapie Spanish wines if I were living on a grad student salary. YMMV of course.

Mark Lipton

Mark, you can still do a lot worse than Sangre de Toro - and you used to get all those little plastic bulls to line up on top of the fridge (do they still have those?).

I recall Yago, Paarl Roodeberg (when it was a much more serious red than it is now), Melini Chianti (if I said it came in the straw covered fiasco would it reveal my age) among others back in the university days. I had much better taste than my buddies that swiped ETOH from the gas chromatography lab to mix with Welch's grape juice....

I don't actually drink Yellow Tail that often, and can't remember the last time I actually bought a bottle. We have a nice little outlet store in town that offers quite a few much more interesting wines for less, and those are my bread and butter. I don't really drink cheap Australians often - too boring, for the most part. Incidentally Mark, I actually recently discover some very nice cheapies from Torres, in their Vina Brava label. For the price and quality, I think I'd still buy those if I had twice my current wine budget.

Ryan, there are loads of interesting stuff down in the same price levels - Robin regularly posts about this sort of wine.

I always figue that if you can have something a bit more interesting for the same money - it doesn't need to be Grange to be worth drinking!

Bill,
I agree you can do much better but the problem is you can also do much worse and finding the great $10 is a bit of a problem. You can kiss a lot of frogs before finding a prince. I tend to experiment and my wife abuses me for serving her anything but old red wines.
Walt

Ryan and others, there are many great recommendations under $10 on Rogov's wine thread:

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=19157

Cheers, Carl

As others have indicated, I don't drink Yellow Tail very often but it has always been dependable. Further, I always offer my kids a sip of wine and Yellow Tail is the only one they've liked and remembered; everything else has tasted the same.

I always offer my kids a sip of wine and Yellow Tail is the only one they've liked and remembered

Well that says it all right there, doesn't it?

How about this new slogan "Yellow Tail. It's the wine that tastes most like Coke"

I've been on a business trip the past few days where lots of Yellow Tail level wine has been poured (Hess Chardonnay and Trader Joes Syrah are the two that come to my mind the quickest) and I just can't muster the energy to drink more than a bit of the stuff. So I've been looking for whatever beers have been available.

Call me a snob, but I don't need worthless alcohol in my life.

At least not usually..