Whenever I see "South Eastern Australia" on a label I think immediately of Jancis Robinson's words: that grape sink.
The dark red label of the tempranillo, above, reads "vino de la tierra de Castilla y Leon." This means that the wine is classified as below Spain's top tier of Denominaciones de Origen (DO) and Denominaciones de Origen Calificada (DOC or DOCa) wines. It is instead the equivalent of the French vin de pays, country wine. Tempranillo is the principal grape of Rioja, although this vino de la tierra is not a Rioja.
For the past few years, "California" pinot noirs have been imported from Europe because the California pinot harvests have been poor. It seems that at least at Beringer, the grape is back. On this label you will see no fine print saying, confusingly, "vin de pays d'oc, product of France," or "provinicia di Pavia, product of Italy." 
My grocery store's first petite sirah! The millenium has arrived.All of these reds were pleasant, tasting of various quantities of blueberry jam, cherries, barbecue sauce, smoke, and chocolate. The pinot noir stood out, a little; its thinness and acidity made it a little more refreshing than the others. On the whole, they remind me of the complaints voiced by wine experts of the advance of "the global red" (Michael Broadbent's phrase) -- the uniformly thick-tasting, fruity, sweet, smooth Red Wine whose high end examples win gold medals and whose low end examples flatter newcomers' simple tastes.
I wonder, would an actual jug wine, a la Carlo Rossi, taste much different from all of these? And must I really begin shelling out $30 a bottle for some even remotely interesting "good values"?
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