A delicious wine, with a unique labeling approach. 19 crimes wine, is a wine themed around real life “criminals”. You get a good, affordable bottle of wine and an interesting story that goes along with each one.
The story of how 19 Crimes Wine came to be. It started 8 years ago (2012) in South East Australia with a winery called Treasury Wine Estates. They wanted to celebrate the infamous 160,000+ men and women banished from Great Britain and sent to Australia in the 18th century. Of course they had all committed at least one of 19 crimes that warranted punishment by “Transportation”! These are not men/women of fiction, but real life Criminals, scholars and artists.
The “Transportation” punishment, which started in 1787, generally speaking turned criminals into everyday ordinary colonists. Instead of receiving the death penalty; the court of law sent prisoners to Australia as punishment . In the long run they would start a new country and a new life from the ground up. Of course many did not finish the treacherous journey across the sea.
“Punishable by Transportation” Corks!
Treasury Wine Estates has created 19 corks, thus each one containing crimes a convict committed and sentenced to “Punishment by Transportation”. With this in mind the crimes on the corks don’t necessarily go with the criminal on the label of the wine bottle. In any event, what crimes will you have committed tonight?
- Grand Larceny, stealing above the value of one shilling
- Petty Larceny, stealing under the value of one shilling.
- Purchasing or receiving stolen goods, jewels, and plate…
- thievery of lead, iron, or copper, or buying or receiving.
- Impersonating an Egyptian.
- Thievery from furnished lodgings.
- Setting fire to underwood.
- Thievery of mail, advancing the postage, and hiding the money.
- Assault with an intent to rob.
- Thievery of fish from a pond or river.
- Thievery of roots, trees, or plants, or destroying them.
- Bigamy.
- Assaulting, cutting, or burning clothes.
- Counterfeiting the copper coin…
- Clandestine marriage.
- Stealing a shroud out of a grave.
- Watermen transporting more passengers than are allowed on the Thames, if any drowned.
- Hardened rogues who busted out of Prison and criminals pardoned from capital punishment.
- Embeuling Naval Stores, in certain cases.
- And more to come…….
About the “19 Crimes” Wine
They started with just Reds but have since started making white wine also. The main focus was an affordable red blend with grape varieties of Grenache, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Durif, Mourvèdre, and my favorite….Shiraz (or Syrah). After a few years they mixed it up and added the white wine, Chardonnay or as they call it “Hard Chard”. Not to mention, it was created to honor the brave women who contributed to the banishment to Australia. This Chardonnay is deep rich and golden and meant to be bold and strong in character.
Furthermore, they have come out with another wine that pays homage to the Australian Rum Rebellion of 1808. A unique Red Blend with rich jammy flavors owing to being aged in oak with a portion of it aged in charred rum barrels. This was the only time in Australia’s history that there was a successful armed takeover of government.
19 Crimes Application
There even is a fun app called Living Wine Labels, that lets you scan your wine label and you can watch your wine come to life through augmented reality. A quirky little addition to the ongoing theme of 19 crimes.
All in all, 19 crimes is a good value wine. At affordable price points ranging from just $ 7 to $ 20, you get a simple and delicious wine. My personal favourite is the Shiraz, which is around $10 to $11 depending on which shop you buy it from. Wine doers not have to be expensive to be good, at the end of the day it all depends on the production technique of the wine maker, and the harvest of grapes that year. Never judge a bottle of wine by its cost. 19 crimes is a great testament to that.