Prisoner Wine Company The Prisoner 2021

First red wine of 2026 and it’s a bit of a controversial one. A quick search on Reddit yields labels like “boring”, “dull”, and “over-manipulated plonk”. One even deemed it unfit as a cooking wine! So the question I had going into this tasting was: is it really THAT bad?

The Prisoner 2021 opens in the glass with a nose of oak, vanilla, tobacco and baking spice. On the palate some sweetness on the attack but not cloying. Concentrated, plush with lots of dark jammy fruit (blackberries, blackcurrant, dark cherries), a bit of raisin character, dark chocolate. Very round with soft tannins, a bit flabby with some heat on the finish.

So was this undrinkable? By no means. It’s a rich fruit bomb, smooth and easy drinking with some residual sugar. One-dimensional and perhaps a bit lacking in character? Yes. Overpriced? Definitely. I still scored it 88-89 points, not as bad as Caymus but there’s better out there.