Oh, Yellow Tail, you saucy wench. In the two months I have been exploring the red wine universe, Shiraz has eluded me. I had a glass at a bar, where I tried (and liked!) my first Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, but the Shiraz left me traumatized. “Oh, God,” I thought, “this tastes like the back of my dog’s ass.”

However, a nasty bottle of Chianti (what got me drinking wine in the first place) that tasted like wilted tulips taught me that every type of wine has its bad apples. “Try Yellow Tail!,” my wine-guzzling friend encouraged. “It’s my favorite!” However, this is a gal who mixes an entire container of wasabi into her rice, so I think her taste buds burned off ages ago.

What the hell. I went for it. And damn, it was good. I mean, it didn’t make me want to swill the whole bottle or hump a wall, but yeah. I liked it.

Fuckin’ koalas.