Yech!

I thought we'd have a treat tonite so I opened, with great anticipation, a multi-award winning wine, the Australian Warburn 2002 cabernet merlot premium reserve. It is easy to get seduced in the wine shop with nice labels and all sorts of medallions (see left) plastered over the bottle but deep down, I must have known there was a reason I only bought one bottle.
There was not much on the nose and the first taste was Yech! Tasted like old tobacco, very vegetal. It didn't open up over 2 hours either. Could only stomach 1 and a half glasses. Didn't taste "corked" so can't blame the cork.
The lesson to be learned is watchout for all the fancy stickers (and remember - a "gold" award does not mean the wine actually won a competition - it just means that it scored above a certain level, and who knows what that level was supposed to be. Each wine show/competition can award dozens or even hundreds of "gold" medals).

The verdict: CRAP
value for the money: at $18, a complete waste.

cheers.
ps: I'm off skiing for a week so I'll summarize the hopefully excellent wines we taste when I get back.