I’m a sucker for a great end-cap, whether at Target or the wine shop. Last week as I picked up wine for our wine & book chat on Twitter, a nice display of Matthew Fox wine caught my eye. Clean design, with an adorable fox logo. And, I’ll be honest, I wondered if it had any affiliation with the TV hottie. Plus, get this, it was only $4.99 per bottle.

“Is it any good?” I asked the forty-ish sales clerk.

“I drank it all summer,” she said with a shrug. “I think it’s good, but then I’m no expert.”

Not exactly a raving endorsement, but I’ll take it! For five bucks I thought it was worth a try, so I grabbed the Shiraz, thinking if I liked it, I’d go back to try some of the others. The label describes it as “medium-bodied with ripe plum fruit flavor and a slightly spicy finish with aromas of boysenberry and apricot.”

I think if you bought this for book club and didn’t tell anyone you paid a few bucks for it, they wouldn’t know. In fact, I’d say it’s definitely on par with the $15 Big Yellow Cab I bought last week. A pleasant Shiraz.

While it isn’t named for the celebrity (thanks, World Wide Web!), it is worth the money and then some. -ML

Would you like to recommend a wine of the week for Wine Wednesday? Just e-mail your wine suggestion, along with the price and a short description from the label to bookendbabes at me dot com and we’ll let you know when it’s posted.