We are indebted to a liquor store manager in Newfoundland for the best summation of the process of wine marketing wine we’ve ever come across: “Putting it on the lips”

Only three vintages of Crucible Shiraz – 2003, 2004 and 2006 – have ever been released. One doesn’t need to be smarter than a fifth-grader to look at that sequence of years and spot the missing 2005. So, where’s the 2005 Crucible?

We didn’t have Star Wars in mind when we named The Dark Side – it was hedonism (as always) – but we couldn’t deprive the rest of the Cloof community of this fabulous review by Sean Roberts, one of the in-store wine specialists at the MLCC (Manitoba monopoly liquor stores):

Barely a day goes by without the price of oil hitting a yet higher record price, as inflation races ever upwards (although Zimbabwe’s inflation rate stands well apart from all others!).

The Very Sexy Shiraz was launched in July 2006, to the news that the 2004 vintage had been awarded Four Stars in Wine magazine’s Shiraz Challenge. This accolade was followed by gold medals on the Michelangelo Wine Awards and the Sélections Mondiales des Vins Canada.