Bare Bones Great Western Shiraz 2022

Bare Bones Great Western Shiraz 2022
AU$14

I went out and bought a bottle of Bare Bones Shiraz 2022 because a previous vintage picked up a major-ish award, and I wanted to see whether the 2022 edition is any good. A bottle cost me $14. Bare Bones Shiraz 2022 is from the Great Western region, which is kind of a personal favourite, because the shiraz from there can have a black-peppery edge and also, often, walks a good line between not-too-big and not-too-light.

Is the Bare Bones Shiraz 2022 any good? It’s a bit warm with alcohol, which interrupts the flow of fruit flavour. It’s generally spicy – pepper and cloves – with mint and blue-black-berry fruit characters. I wouldn't score it highly, 87/100 maybe, but at $14 you don’t find many wines of this style (though this is similar), and for that reason it’s worth considering. It’s ripe and the edges are not hard. It’s not plush; it’s refreshing. And the label design is nice too.

Outside of the wine style, and the price, and the prettiness of the label, there’s not a heap to recommend it. As in, in pure wine quality terms, it’s not great. But it is well made, and those other factors are not nothing.

If you’re wondering: Bare Bones Shiraz 2022 is a Dan Murphy’s home brand, or it virtually is. It’s made by Pinnacle Drinks, which is part of the Endeavour Group, which owns both Pinnacle and Dan Murphy’s (and BWS, Shortys Liquor, Jimmy Brings and Langton’s, among others). Bare Bones Shiraz is grown in the Great Western region of Victoria, but is made in the Barossa in South Australia. The Great Western wine region (as opposed to Great Western the town) is now more commonly known as the Grampians region; they’re both the same thing.

87 points