The 19-Crimes Wine (Australia)

19-Crimes Wine (Australia)

You bet that when I first heard about the existence of 19-Crimes wine, I could not ignore it without taking note. The labels of this outstanding winery signify the tales of 19^th-century Australian convicts.

The wine itself is more than simply a good drink for the Fall Season; it is a window into the glorious past. By the way, I mean that literally.

What Makes 19-Crimes Wine Special?

Using the Living Wine Labels augmented reality app, we can interact with the individuals exhibited on 19-Crimes wine bottles via the app. In fact, 19-Crimes is a subsidiary of Treasury Wine Estates – the largest producer of wine in the world.

The producer is also a parent firm of various other renowned labels, such as Beringer, Rosemount Estate, Sterling, Stag’s Leap, etc. As far as 19-Crimes is concerned, it is carried by Trader’s Joe, other grocery store chains, small liquor & wine shops, and customized online shops.

Besides its delicious taste, the wine has an exclusive feature of telling a tale on each bottle – making it unique among other wine types. The famous Forbes magazine termed the idea of utilizing modern technology for marketing as an ‘amazing example’ of ‘adult-targeted augmented reality,’ as the labels enable every convict represented on each bottle to express their personal experiences.

You can further explore this concept by watching the video given below. The past is a bleak place, where each nation has exercised various types of penalties for certain forms of crime for many centuries.

It Tells Tales of 19th-century Australian convicts

For example, in penal transportation, the criminals were eliminated from society by sending them to faraway places – typically prisoner’s colonies tailored for this purpose. For 80 years between 1788 and 1868, this practice was undoubtedly at its peak in England.

In British prisons and courts, the overcrowding of criminals had to be alleviated. Hence, petty criminals & political prisoners were often dispatched to the penal colonies set up in America, but more frequently in Australia.

19 Crimes is an Australian wine brand established in 2012 by Treasury Wine Estates.

The people who would set up these colonies had conveniently overlooked the fact that millions of indigenous people were already living in those places. Nonetheless, more than 160,000 convicted criminals were sent to Australia under the pretense of Penal Transportation.

In fact, a list of 19 offenses was generated, which also included grand theft & lifting a shroud out of a cemetery. If a person was convicted of these criminal charges, he would be condemned to Penal Transportation in the days before the death penalty.

The misery of those convicted criminals has been highlighted through each label of 19-Crimes wine. Every label depicts a criminal sentenced to go halfway across the globe as a punishment for his crime. For example, the Catalpa Rescue shows the efforts of the Irish Republican Brotherhood to free its six members from a prison colony in Australia.

On 17-19 April 1876, these Fenian prisoners managed to escape from the Convict Establishment – a British Penal Colony in Western Australia.

Unique story on Each Wine Bottle

A particular example is Boyle O’Reilly, an Irishman, who had joined the Fenians in 1864, and was convicted for treason together with a large number of Fenians. He was condemned to die in February 1866. Later on, his sentence was changed to life imprisonment, and he was transferred to Western Australia but escaped in 1869.

A standard red mixed wine bottle shows O’Reilly. Later on, he became an activist & a poet and helped organize the rescue of Catalpa Tree in Boston. Another dark mix wine popularly known as ‘Banished’ is named after James Wilson – another Fenian.

He was caught in 1866 and convicted for desertion & mutinous behavior and condemned to death. However, his sentence was reduced to life in servitude at Western Australian prison in 1867. Like O’Reilly, James also escaped the prison during the Rescue of Catalpa.

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