PENFOLDS Max Shiraz Cabernet 2015

(South Australia, Australia) $20

I admire Max Schubert (after whom this wine was named). Schubert apparently didn’t flinch when a critic described his first commercial vintage of Grange as “a concoction of wild fruits and sundry berries with crushed ants predominating.” (Grange, of course, has gone on to be one of Australia’s most famous wines). Six decades later, this homage to Schubert is an every night, straightforward, delicious red—maybe the kind of wine Schubert drank a lot of in Oz in the 1950s. At $20, it’s not like its big brother Grange ($850), but of a Wednesday evening with a roast chicken, it’s just right. (14.5% abv)

89 points KM

Available at Applejack Wine & Spirits