Blank on Purpose

Can you Improve a Wine by Raising its Price?

I wrote  a post under this heading a while back, and a few weeks ago a loyal subscriber wrote about his experience with the iconic Aussie red. His post could be titled Why I No longer Drink Hill of Grace.

‘I look forward to and read the advice in your email,’ Des wrote. ‘As a person who didn’t drink until i travelled overseas and discovered there was life outside a 1950s Aussie country  pub culture. I returned and read Len Evans column and booklets and then under some very bright wine merchants ie licensed wine/grocery stores advice i built a collection of 300 bottles.

Went overseas again and arrived back in the seventies to drink Hill of Grace etc. So i have always followed good advice and you have continued my luck. NOW i know longer drink Hill of Grace.

As an 81 year old I thought i should share my introduction to Henschke wines and how over time I and Henschke reconnected  given your recent newsletter’s foot note.

As a construction worker, but one who had been round the world by the mid 1960s, I had returned to Perth and bought my wine and spirits from wine merchants, one of whom sold my brother and I Henschke wines and said if you dont like it, the restaurant on the Perth Esplanade will all ways buy them off you.

Well we went off to travel the world again and I arrived back in the seventies with an idle cellar. At the time of my marriage, I plus the new wife were taken out for dinner by 12 of our closest friends and I took – it was bring your own – 4 of 1960s Henschke Hill of Grace, and Mount Edelstone wines.

Some years  later I was at a luncheon, strawberries, champagne and cheese, with several of the original wedding dinner reps plus others, and the same luncheon host. When he saw the three Henschke wines, corks drawn, said are you still recycling  those bottles? No one touched them after that, so I took them them home. And I said to the host you will never ever sip any of the remainder of  my cellar.

Many years later in Hobart at one of my favourite restaurants, the Mona Lisa, they had a vintage wine list, no names but you could ask for a wine off the hidden list. He used to buy estate cellars. The owner one day said I am not going to let you access the vintage unless you ring on the day and say you will be there for lunch – I want to air my choice. On one occasion he served a Hill of Grace, this is the 1990s, we ordered a second and he said I never serve two of those for lunch.

And we didn’t pay hundreds.

Kim, as a subscriber i thank you for your efforts, your contributions go beyond the wine itself; in my early adulthood the only source about wine for tradies was Evans in the Bulletin plus our three wine merchants. i am a buy local but I weaken occasionally and buy interstate.

Regards

Des

PS: I also picked up the deep woods ebony. We were at the NSW WINE SOCIETY 50th  dinner at the Must Restaurant  in Perth, and Deep Woods were present and announced they had won the Jimmy Watson, and my table neighbour was Dennis Lilly. After the dinner, Deep Woods laid on the Sparking wine for the diners, what memories of wine, companies – and I married into a Swan Valley grape grower soldier settler family.

Thanks for the story and the feedback, Des

OK, let’s answer the question: Can you improve a wine by raising its price?

I read with interest that Stephen Henschke wants to push the price of Hill of Grace past the price of Grange. Why? ‘When you think of rarity and story,’ says Stephen, ‘Hill of Grace is clearly the most precious wine.’ It follows that it should cost more, he argues.

Such crisp logic takes your breath away, doesn’t it? On our website, we provide abundant proof that price is a fickle guide to the quality of wine. Last year, Decanter magazine gave the trophy for Australia’s best Shiraz (and best red) to a $37 Shaw & Smith 2012. And late in 2013, a $27 Grant Burge Filsel Shiraz 2010 won Winestate magazine’s Great Shiraz Challenge. Also in 2013, a $17 Pepperjack 2012 won the Visy Great Aussie Shiraz challenge.

For this contest, Editor Peter Simic bought samples of Grange and Hill of Grace since their makers don’t enter them in competitions or wine shows for fear of embarrassment. It was a good move by Peter. This is what I wrote after studying the results: ‘ … near the end of the 20 pages of reviews we find Grange and Hill of Grace sitting in a corner like two school boys who’ve misbehaved in class. 3 stars out of 5 is a disgrace for wines that carry price tags in the $600 – $800 range.’

More >>

This is an example of our weekly mailer, which we’re using to support a Facebook ad

THIS WEEK

The nights are getting cold, and we’re longing for rich casseroles that call for heart-warming reds. They don’t come much more heart-warming than the reds of the Barossa Valley, so that’s where we’re going today.

Weekend Reading: The Vintage Journal – Barossa 2022, by Andrew Caillard and Angus Hughson\

Weekend Tucker: Dead Easy Sausage and Bacon Casserole.

WINE OF THE WEEK

Creamery Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2020 – $24 at Our Cellar. Made by O’Neill Vintners, who take ripe Chardonnay made from grapes grown in Monterey, Paso Robles and Clarksburg. It’s 100% barrel fermented, 100% malolactic fermentation, and spends seven months in American and French oak.
This was the crowd favourite at a lunch we had for a big birthday with family and friends. So many of us prefer this style of ripe, peachy, creamy and buttery chardy to the austere grapefruit concoctions so popular with sommeliers and critics. California winemakers know how to fine-polish these styles too. Gorgeous drink, usually sells for around $30. 95 points.

BEST VALUE BAROSSA REDS

Yalumba Homefullness Grenache 2017 – $120 a dozen at the winery. Insights into this wine from Wine Companion. Yalumba donates half the proceeds to an outfit that builds homes for the homeless. It sounds like alight red that  can take a chill.

Duval Surgo Barossa Valley GMS 2018 – $10 at DM’s. I’m not sure about this one – a $10 red made by an ex-Grange winemaker who learnt his craft from Max Schubert? Check it out if you’re near a DM shop.

Thorn-Clarke Sandpiper Shiraz 2018 – $15 at Summer Hill Wine. A perennial bargain, from the great 2018 vintage, a generous red of solid build, chock-full of honest flavour. Will improve for 3 – 5 years.

Peter Lehmann Portrait Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 – $16 at mycellars, where the freight is free for subscribers on any quantity (promo code BWU20). This red won a bunch of bling, most likely because it’s a crowd pleaser, soft juicy and slippery. Drink now and over the next couple of years. 94 points.

Glaetzer Wallace Shiraz Grenache 2018 – $18 at Summer Hill Wine. Old vine Barossa Grenache at a bargain price. Aged in old oak so the fruit does most of the talking. Juicy red fruits, soft and silky on the palate, with the Shiraz adding weight and fine tannins on the finish. Another crowd pleaser. 94 points.

Secret Label Barossa Valley Grenache 2020 – $19 at Kemenys. Made by a couple guys who get their fingerprints all over their labels, this is a real charmer, soft and silky, mid-weight with lots of finesse. Lovely style. 95 points. Bargain.

Secret Label Barossa Valley Mataro Grenache Shiraz 2020 – $19 at Kemenys. From the same makers as the Grenache above. We opened a 2016 this week, and it was a beauty at its peak. The 2020MGS will reach its peak a bit earlier I think. The perfumed Mataro adds something special here. 95 points.

Teusner The Independent Barossa Valley Shiraz Mataro 2018 – $20 at Our Cellar.
2018 was a great vintage for reds, as I keep telling you, and Kym’s team made the best of it. This is a 50 / 50 blend. The Shiraz is rich, plummy and peppery, and the Mataro adds dark cherries, exotic spices, charcuterie and earthy notes. Layers of rich and robust flavour make this a superb Barossa red that is the perfect match for a hearty sausage casserole. 95 points. Back up the ute.

Shanahans Silence is Golden Barossa Valley Shiraz 2019 – $21 at DM’s (member offer). Top red from the word GO. Profound Shiraz with a spicy nose and a glossy texture. Rich, ripe fruit, dark chocolate and Christmas pudding spices, with some charcuterie in the background. Fine tannins on the long finish round it all off nicely. Perfect pitch, one of those reds you can enjoy now (after some airing) and keep for 20 years. Brilliant. 96 points. A genuine bargain.

Chaffey Bros Pax Aeterna 2021 – $23 at Our Cellar The brothers are 3 smart young Turks who make wines that are different, more modern, more intriguing, more colourful. I haven’t tried this wine, but CM at The Wine Front has. I love his opening line:
‘It took Grenache roughly 150 years to become an overnight success in Australia but the glory days of Aussie Grenache are upon us. This release is fresh, delicate, laced with dry spice and tannin, juicy with fruit, and high in drinkability. It feels authentic because it is. Raspberry characters with a glow to them. Earth notes inlaid. Everything on firm/sure tippy toes, ballerina-like, elevated and exact. There’s texture here too, warm texture, silk fresh from the ironing board, treated right. A lovely drink, it is. 92 points.’

Head Red Shiraz 2018 – $22 at Kemenys. Another red from the great 2018 vintage, and another one I haven’t tried. Gary at the Wine Front says: ‘Medium-bodied, succulent, intense fruit of perfume and weight, dark chocolate tannin, savoury elements, very long fresh finish. Super vintage. Puppy-like in enthusiasm as at now. Almost 94 points, though that’s kind of arbitrary.’

Gibson The Smithy Shiraz Cabernet 2018 – $25 at Nicks. Rob Gibson was amking reds at Penfolds until he went out on his own in 1997. He got the nickname ‘Dirtman’ because of his obsession about vine growth which led him to dig deep pits in between vines.
This is a big red, close to 15%, with impenetrable colour, a nose of ripe red berries, seductive oak, various spices, hints of warm earth and touch of tar. Another product of the 2018 vintage, and one that should improve for years. 95 points.

SPECIAL WINES

Teusner Joshua 2021 – $28 at Our Cellar (where the freight is free for subscribers (promo code BWU20). Grenache Mataro Shiraz stored in stainless steel to showcase the freshness and boldness of top notch Barossa fruit. Which is intense, glass-staining, and full of youthful exuberence. The attraction is strong but a little more time will not hurt the wine. 94+ points.

Teusner The Dog Strangler Barossa Valley Mataro 2018 – $28 at Our Cellar. I adore Mataro, and it’s so underrated. I love the flowery notes and seductive aromatics. In France it used to be known as ‘étrangle chien’, because it makes tough reds in a cool climate. In the Barossa it tells a different story. 95 points.

Duval Plexus Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre 2019 – $35 at Kemenys. Another Rhone blend, this one from ex-Grange winemaker John Duval. Haven’t tried it; check the real review’s rave review at the link. 95 points.

Sons of Eden Zephyrus Shiraz 2018 – $35 at Kemenys. Corey Ryan and Simon Cowham make generous Barossa reds, which always seem to have had some fine polish applied that adds a silky texture. Another great red from 2018. 95 points.

Yalumba FDR1A Barossa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2015 – $44 at Our Cellar. A medium-bodied style of elegance and finesse, made from Eden Valley fruit a stone’s throw from the Barossa, stylish and good drinking already but there’s no rush since the pitch is perfect.
I remember the 1974, which was unloved and discounted heavily, a winemaking triumph in a wet year. The wine was still great 20 years later.

INTERESTING STUFF

2022 Barossa Wine Guide from Winepilot
Old School Meets New in Barossa, From Young Gun of Wine
World’s Drunkest Job – Wine Blogging, from the wine folly
Heat Threatens Oregon Pinot Noir, via wine searcher

That’s it for this week

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Your suggestions for improving this site are always more than welcome, as are your reviews of great wines you’ve found for under $25. We also want your feedback on the wines we recommend – please don’t hold back kim@bestwinesunder20.com.au or info@bestwinesunder20.co,.au

Kim Brebach
Wine Sleuth & Riesling Freak

Money, Marketing and Madness

You can see it, can’t you? The marketing director comes back from his meeting with the CEO, and addresses his troops.

‘We need to show stronger growth,’ he tells them. ‘The fastest way to do that is growth by acquisition, and we have an open cheque book.’

The eyes of the young marketing minds light up as they shout ‘yeah, let’s do it’, accompanied by high fives. They used to work for Fabergé, Kimberly-Clark, David Jones, Lion-Nathan and Coca-Cola.

It was the 1980s, when corporate raiders swept across Australia buying wineries; or the 1990s when there wasn’t enough Chardonnay to go around and Robert Parker fell in love with Duck Muck; or the new millennium when the export boom was in full swing, with huge bladders of cheap Aussie plonk crossing the oceans to Britain and America.

Wineries were bought and sold like shares on the stock exchange. Others were simply allowed to die or swallowed by the suburban sprawl. Basedow’s, Stonyfell, Kaiserstuhl, Reynella, Minchinbury, Rothbury.

History and Mystery

Others were rebranded by the bright young marketing minds, like Lindeman’s. One of our great wine brands, once up at the top with Penfolds et al, making stunning wines from the Hunter to Coonawarra.

‘It’s old-fashioned, stuffy.’

‘Yeah, look at those labels!’

‘It needs a serious make-over. A new identity, a new narrative.’

‘Hey, I read that low alcohol wines are the coming thing – we could be at the head of the trend, or even set the trend.’

‘What do we do with Rouge Homme? What about that shocker of a label?’

‘Does anyone remember why we bought that brand?’

Silence all round.

‘History, who needs it? Stories is what we need. Marketing in the new millennium is story telling. Wine is such a blokey business; we need stories about women in wine, like Eliza Lindeman.’

Yeah! All agreed and high fives all around

Indigestion

The challenges at Southcorp were far more dramatic.

‘The stock market still hasn’t forgiven us for buying Rosemount,’ said the CFO. ‘They say 1.5 billion was far too much.’

‘Fosters paid more than that for Beringer-Blass,’ CEO John Ballard argued, ‘and we bought more than a winery, we bought a crack management team with it.’

‘You mean a fucked up management team,’ said chairman Brian Finn.

Ballard’s face was a grimace. ‘It was the integration of the 2 teams that was fucked up.’ He shrugged and added, ‘are we done? I’ve got to put the final touches on the revamped organization chart before we announce it to the press.’

Ballard had taken over as CEO earlier in 2003. He was still smarting form the remark made by one analyst who’d said: ‘He’s not a boom recruit. He’s not the big name the market was looking for.’

Ballard was new to the wine business. He had built APD/Smith’s Snackfoods into a major force, and then run United Biscuits Asia Pacific. The last few years he’d focused on his work as a board member of top companies. He’d never experienced a mess like the one he found himself in now.

Walking Winemakers

It wasn’t just the stock market and Rosemount’s management team; some of Australia’s top winemakers had walked out after Rosemount’s Chardonnay wizard Philip Shaw took over as chief winemaker: Neville Falkenberg, Philip John, Geoff Henriks, Ian McKenzie and even Grange winemaker John Duval. All gone.

Later that week, Ballard told the press: ‘As we put behind us the problems we have caused for ourselves, I think the Rosemount acquisition will prove to have been a very good one.’ He had his fingers crossed behind his back.

Two years later, Ballard walked as well. Southcorp was a Boa Constrictor that had swallowed a very large pig. A billion dollar write-down hadn’t reduced the pressure on its stomach – it just poured fuel on the ire of the analysts and shareholders. Worse, revenue was half of what it had been when Ballard took over. Then Fosters had launched a hostile take-over bid.

Ballard had read about the shareholder meeting in the Fin Review. There were angry scenes. One shareholder argued that chairman Brian Finn should resign since he had been ‘a party to all the disastrous decisions that had brought this company to its knees.’

Another shareholder said: ‘It’s all right to sit up there in your flash suits and get your big money, but none of you are suffering like we are. I’m an investor. I rely on the income from dividends.’

Buying Back the Farm

Special Homecoming For Much-Loved Metala was a headline in a recent WBM mailer. The Adams family had bought the brand back from Treasury Wine Estates, a rare good news story.

Metala is the oldest family-owned Cabernet vineyard in the world, and one of the oldest Shiraz vineyards in Langhorne Creek. I had long wondered how much local content had remained in this once great red from Langhorne Creek, which sells for about $10 these days.

Not much in recent years, according to Guy Adams. He says: ‘The homecoming and relaunch of the brand means that when wine lovers buy a bottle of Metala wine, they will once again be getting the original, rich and full bodied Metala fruit they’ve come to expect.’

Before Wolf Blass picked Langhorne Creek as one of South Australia’s great wine areas, the late Peter Lehmann made the wine for Stoneyfell. I remember a night when we had dinner in town in the early eighties, when my best friend Reg brought along a 1966 Grange, and I brought a 1967 Metala. It was the better wine of the two, we all agreed. 

Trashing hallowed Names

This story made me think of all the great brands that were swallowed up by the corporate raiders in the greed- and alcohol-fuelled 1970s, 80s and 90s.

Adelaide wine merchant Woodley’s once sold the Treasure Chest series of fabled Coonawarra reds. The pretty Treasure Chest label ended up in the clutches of Treasury Wine Estates, and soon graced $5 bottles of cheap and nasty bubbly.

It seems the marketing people at TWE despise all things old, and any kind of tradition, or don’t know what to do with it because they learnt their craft selling beer, cosmetics and toilet paper.

Lindemans bought Rough Homme in the sixties from the Redman family. Years later, the brand went through the hands of various corporate owners until the Digiorgio Family bought the winery in 2001 (which was the death knell for the label according to the Redmans). There was no official death notice or burial.

Led by CEO Ray Kidd, Lindemans had a towering reputation until it was bought by Philip Morris, and then passed through numerous uncaring hands until it ended up at Southcorp and then TWE. It now graces low-alcohol concoctions with utterly silly stories about Eliza Lindeman and her daughters.

What happened to the famous Hunter River Burgundies? Don’t ask. The Coonawarra Trio still exists somewhere in the bowels of TWE, well-hidden from public view. Most likely dead and awaiting burial.

Stanley Leasingham – after various owners that included Heinz of 57 varieties fame, this once great brand was bought by Hardy’s in the late eighties and later ended up in the hands of private equity firm Accolade, bereft of life. Tim Adams bought the winery and equipment.

Thomas Hardy and Sons – this was one of our greatest wine companies, which ended up owning Chateau Reynella, Stanley Leasingham and Houghtons in the West. It merged with Berry-Renmano in the early nineties and became BRL Hardy before it was gobbled up by Accolade, which became Champ Equity, which became part of an international conglomerate called Constellation brands.

Hardy’s flagship wines are fairly recent creations, but at least they honour their founders Thomas and Eileen Hardy with serious wines. Chateau Reynella, named after the man who planted the first commercial vineyard in South Australia, is now a housing estate, which may be a better fate than ending up gracing cheap plonk.

Quelltaler became Annie’s Lane some years ago, and its role in the TWE theatre was to produce rich, soft, easy-drinking affordable table wines. No more interesting white Burgundies made from Semillon, or brilliant Rieslings. TWE recently sold the vineyards to Warren Randall of Seppeltsfield, but kept the Annie’s Lane label which will no doubt end up gracing some vin ordinaire in the near future.

Minchinbury was once a powerhouse sparkling wine maker on the outskirts of western Sydney, with its best Great Wesstern bubblies fetching a much higher price than Penfolds Grange.

Today almost all remnants of the once proud estate have been swallowed up by another housing estate near the Great Western Highway. The once hallowed brand belongs to TWE these days, and graces $6 bottles  of awful wines with names like Minchinbury Dolce.

The New Guard

The sixties and seventies saw a whole lot of new wineries burst onto the scene; most of them crashed and burnt or were forced to regroup, but some of them built big reputations.

The ambitious Rothbury Estate in the heart of the Hunter Valley was the brainchild of Len Evans and Murray Tyrrell, and the expectations were flying high when it came to life in the early seventies.

Len and Murray put all their eggs into 2 famous baskets, planting 400 hectares to Semillon and Shiraz. The fickle punters never loved these varieties like Len and Murray did, and chased the fancy new Chardonnays and Pinots Noir. That was a serious problem for Rothbury. Various acquisitions broadened the company’s offerings, but looked like random hits rather than planned acquisitions.

Lexicon tells us that, ‘in 1995, despite fierce opposition from Evans, Rothbury Estate was hostilely (sic) taken over by Mildara Blass.’ Some people should stick to whatever they’re good at instead of mangling the English language, ja? What happened in between is a fascinating story of its own. Today the Rothbury name graces a range of $10 non-vintage wines of no apparent distinction.

Bob Oatley built the Rosemount brand into an icon, on the back of some big Chardonnays from the Hunter and fine reds from McLaren Vale. After a decade-long struggle, the once famous Rosemount brand died of mortal wounds inflicted by series of massive marketing blunders. OK, you can still find bottles of it in the discount bins of the big chains, but they bear no resemblance to the wines of the glorious past.

The story goes that Bob Oatley talked Fosters into buying Southcorp, in the hope that they’d return the Rosemount brand to its former glory. Fosters did no such thing; instead it spun off the whole wine business – including Penfolds – into Treasury Wine estates, telling the media that it was a distraction to the beer business.

The great cask hall at Rothbury Estate.

That question usually produces a waffly answer about apples and oranges, or in plain English: surely you know that you can’t compare the two styles. This is despite the fact that our winemakers have been busting a gut for decades to produce a bubbly that could challenge the French icons.

Half a century ago we didn’t have the grape varieties or the cool climate of the champagne region. Since we planted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the Yarra Valley, Macedon and Tasmania a few decades ago, those limitations have gone away.

Aussie Prestige vs bulk champagne

As our ambitious producers developed better cool climate styles, they took a leaf out of the champagne marketing guide and introduced special ‘cuvees’ – fancy bottles from the House of Arras, Jansz and Chandon, Clover Hill, Hanging Rock, Brown Brothers and then a whole host of new producers.

The prices went up and soon reached the same $50 level as the basic wines of the champagne houses, which are made in vast quantities and owe more to smart marketing than smart winemaking. Today we have a number of bubblies that sell for $100 or more, as you cansee from the excerpt of Tyson Stelzer’s Australian Sparkling Report 2020 below.

Image Source: Tyson Stelzer’s Australian Sparkling Wine Review 2020

Game over but hold it – there’s a late scratching

It’s rare to find a review that pitches Aussie bubblies against champagne, but I found a piece James Halliday wrote for the Weekend Australian magazine a couple of years ago. JH reviewed a bunch of local and French wines, and the $40 – $60 locals acquitted themselves remarkably well with scores ranging from 94 -96 points. The champagnes scoring points in that range were $100 or more.

This was music to my ears until I saw this caveat form the G.O.M. of Aussie wine: ‘… are the points for the Champagnes comparable with those of Australian sparkling wines? The answer is no, they are not. Nor would points for great red Burgundies compare with those for Australian and New Zealand pinot noirs; or First Growth Bordeauxs with Margaret River cabernet merlots.’

I always thought we had a single 100 point scale for wine reviews, but James seems to suggest that we have a range of scales for wine styles from different parts of the globe. News to me, but James writes: ‘Points are as subjective as the words in the tasting notes, but are a separate way of expressing the taster’s opinion, to be assimilated along with the description of the wine in the context of the particular tasting. All this may frustrate some consumers, but the ultimate reality is that Australia can never make Champagne, a Burgundy or a Bordeaux, so direct points comparison is fraught with contradictions and qualifications.’

Frustrated? No, Confused

Why? Because comparative tastings are as common as heatwaves, and they always use just one scale for obvious reasons. Remember the Judgement of Paris in 1976? When French judges pronounced Californian Cabernet and Chardonnay superior to their French counterparts? Thousands of comparative tastings have followed over the years – Burgundies vs Pinot Noir, Aussie Chardonnays vs white Burgundies.

Chardonnays from New Zealand have held their own more than once against white Burgundies that cost ten times as much, in tastings organized by British wine writers. Did they use a different scale for the Kiwi chardies? Of course not.

By way of a final stamp of approval from the highest court in the world of wine, Grand Dame du vin Jancis Robinson chose a Chardonnay from Kumeu River (NZ) for her youngest daughter’s recent wedding.

Max Headroom

We review different wine styles and different wines from different countries all the time, and we always use the same system for reviewing and scoring. The reviews are based on the same criteria: the qualities of the wine in the glass.

In Australia, we’ve adopted what we might call a Readers’s Digest version of the 100 point system. Any wine under 90 points is regarded as a waste of time, and 98 points is about the limit on the sublime end of the scale. How is an 8-point scale better than the old 20 point system?

Bubles specialist Tyson Stelzer outlines his more nuanced criteria in the Australian Sparkling Wine report. He’s stretched the boundaries a little way down the scle, but it still comes down to 98 points = sublime, 88 points = vin ordinaire. Tyson clearly wants to give himself more headroom since he reviews wines like a $6 Wolf Blass red label on one hand, and a $400 Louis Roederer Crystal on the other. That’s a huge range to cover with one tiny scale. So he’s extended the range downward below 90 by about 6 points. The problem now is that his scores no longer match his reviews.

Brown Bros Pinot Noir Chardonnay & Pinot Meunier NV is an example. ‘This is quite a recipe for this bargain price’, says Tyson. ‘Crafted according to the full regime of méthode traditionnelle, … four years on lees has built layers of spicy, toasty, honeyed complexity and a creamy structure, amplified by old French oak … Led confidently by pinot noir, the cool heights of King Valley have evolved into spicy, baked apple and fig character. Honeyed dosage counters a little phenolic bite on the finish, but you can’t have everything for $25.’

Great Review, right? Tyson’s score is a measly 89 points. I’ve rated it 93 over the years, others have rated it higher. In other words, we need to see Tyson’t scores in HIS CONTEXT. At least he’s not suggesting that we use different scoring systems for wines from Europe.

Almost across the board however, Tyson’s Aussie sparkling wine scores are a lot lower than his champagne scores, and he includes wines that score just 85 points. That’s a score he reserves for wines that he describes as ‘ordinary and boring, though without notable faults’. I’m confused again since Tyson’s lowest score for ‘sound’ wines is 88 points. I thought ‘sound’ meant without notable faults. Here is his list:

The vast majority of bubbles under $30 score fewer than 90 points in Tyson’s list, which suggests (more logically than Halliday) that our efforts are not in the same class as the froggy bubbles.

That’s it from me – over to you.

‘If this year’s average auction price for the past 20 vintages is anything to go by, Grange should sell for $523. Will you pay $900?’ Tyson Stelzer.

You’ve gotta give it to Penfolds

They know how to milk their loyal customers. And they know how to milk Max Schubert’s towering legacy for every last dollar. They have no shame. They put the great man’s name on all kinds of garish labels. Max never made a Rosé, but they made one for him. They have no shame.

The latest stunt is the Penfolds g5, a five-vintage blend of Granges stretching back to 2010 that sells for $3500 a 750 ml bottle. Is that it? YUP, that’s it. They pour bottles from 5 vintages into a vat, stir the blend and bottle it under a fancy new label. Then they sell it at 4 times the price of the current vintage Grange. Or 6 times the average auction price of the 2008 Grange, which scored 100 perfect points with Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.

Is the blend of 5 recent vintages worth so much more than older vintages of Grange? And I’m talking about pitch-perfect Granges here such as the 1976, 1986, 1990, 1991 or 1996? Do you know that you can buy these FIVE vintages at auction for a total of $3500?That’s right: FIVE bottles of the best Granges made in the last 50 years for the same money as a single bottle of g5, or the same money as FOUR bottles of the current Grange 2017.

You’ll never get your money back 

It’s a myth that Grange will appreciate with age. You can buy every Grange made since the stunning 1976 for less than the current release. How come? Penfolds got too greedy at the turn of the millennium when it pushed the price of Grange to $500 and beyond. That’s about the average price of Grange on the auction scene today, the ‘secondary market.’

The result is that you’ll lose money when selling bottles of Grange you’ve bought in the last 20 years. And you’ll be lucky to get your money back if you paid more than $500 a bottle. So why is Penfolds selling Grange for more than it will fetch at auction decades later? Because they’re greedy, and the faithful keep buying the wine.

Peter Gago claims that Penfolds’ high prices reflect the strong demand for Grange. That’s obvious nonsense given that the auction market is awash with top notch Granges at prices close to half those of the current releases. Check the latest auction prices here.

The 2011 vintage in South Australia was a washout. When this happens in Bordeaux, they don’t make the Grand Vin in that vintage, yet Penfolds sold their 2011 Grange for $785 in 2015, while the great 2008 and 2010 Granges sold for $600 at auction.

‘What’s the true value of Penfolds Grange?’ asks Tyson Stelzer in a post headed Grange, the Big Dilemma. He goes on to say: ‘If this year’s average auction price for the past 20 vintages is anything to go by, the answer is $523. Will you pay $900?’

Hunters & Collectors

The people at Penfolds know their market. Many of the punters lining up to buy the g5, or new releases of Grange, are not wine lovers or connoisseurs. They’re collectors. Grange is more often collected and traded than enjoyed, but most buyers say they’re happy to drink the wines rather than lose money selling them. Think of the g5 as a famous stamp or a special minting of Bitcoin. The stamp below is worth a million dollars.

Inverted Jenny 1918 Stamp (photo via Wikimedia Commons

Unlike wine, stamps become more valuable when a mistake was made in their production. As with fine wine, rarity plays a crucial role. Among Penfolds’ top end reds, the most valuable Granges are the early ones (1951 – 1953), which were produced in tiny numbers, and are now rare as hen’s teeth.

A very rare Grange Hermitage Bin 1 Shiraz 1951, the first ever vintage made, recently sold for $142,131 and became the most expensive bottle of Australian wine ever. Other Granges that fetch high prices are those Max Schubert made in the late fifties after he was ordered to stop making this wine. Again, the small quantities made, and the story behind them, have been good investments despite the fact that Max couldn’t buy the new oak barrels that are so vital to the make-up of this wine.

Unbroken sets of Grange also fetch high prices if they contain a few rare vintages.

Special Bottlings

Max made a couple of these in the sixties: the Bin 60A Coonawarra Cabernet Barossa Shiraz 1962, and the Bin 620 Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 1966 (also from Coonawarra). The Bin 60A is among the top wines ever made down under, the experts tell us, and fetched some $20,000 at a recent Barossa auction. The Bin 620 isn’t far behind.

A couple of mates of mine who own a number of old Penfolds reds went to a re-corking clinic in Sydney, where a Penfolds staffer pronounced the Bin 620 dead on arrival. My mates argued that the lady was wrong, so she got a second opinion from a colleague who confirmed her verdict.

My mates took the wine home with them, and just for fun opened it the following evening with dinner where it astonished them with its sheer delights. Needless to add: they don’t have a high opinion of Penfolds recorking clinics.

When Peter Gago took over as chief winemaker, he released new wines under the same 2 bin numbers in 2004 and 2008. There was a new special bottling as well: Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 (the wine that went into the 168,000 dollar ampoule). The follow-up was the Bin 170 Kalimna Vineyard Block 3C 2010.

The faithful snapped these wines up despite prices double those of the mighty Grange, which can’t have been thrilled about being upstaged by newcomers with no lineage.

Super Blends

In 2017 Penfolds released the g3, a blend of 3 vintages. Had Penfolds’ marketing minions run out of ideas for special blends? ‘Blending across vintages is part of Penfolds winemaking philosophy,’ Peter Gago told the media and referred to Penfolds’ Tawny ports, ‘famous in the mid-1800’s (you’d think they could afford a competent copywriter, wouldn’t you?) made by blending multiple vintages. ‘A natural progression was to apply this venerated technique to create a new Penfolds red style,’ said Gago.

This claim is fanciful at best, and cynical at worst as Gago well knows: most ports are blended from multiple vintages, and so are most champagnes. However, in both cases the single vintage wines fetch much higher prices than the blends because they’re only made in great vintages in limited quantities.

I don’t know of any reds in the world with 4 digit price tags that are blends of several vintages (although someone is bound to correct me). Such blends are typically found on supermarket shelves at single digit prices. That said, the faithful snapped the g3 up, and the g4 followed in 2020. An obvious move by Penfolds since it’s all money for jam. And now the g5.

Where do you get it? You can’t just walk into your local Dan Murphy’s and buy a 6-pack. No, you have to go through an expression of interest process with Penfolds, where you might score a bottle or 2 if you’re fast enough. No kidding.

Profusion & Confusion

In between the g3 and g4, Penfolds released the Bin 111A Clare Valley Barossa Valley Shiraz 2016, which scored a perfect 100 points with several reviewers. You can actually still buy this wine today, for $1500 a bottle. I suspect the faithful either couldn’t keep up with all the new releases or they were terminally confused.

You’d think Penfolds would’ve kept a wine of this caliber for the 70^th birthday of Grange (2021), but you’d be wrong. Instead Gago launched ‘Superblend’ 802-A Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2018 on an unsuspecting world in 2021, for the same price as the current Grange. This was a double release as there was a twin called Superblend 802-B. One is matured in American oak, the other in French.

These superblends didn’t impress Huon Hooke or Ken Gargett, who came up with scores of 93 points. Others score the wines between 95 and 97 points. Either way, these releases diminish the stature of Grange, and that of Penfolds, unless they are are really special.

The Penfolds Collection

Once the collection numbered half a dozen wines: Grange, St Henri, bins 707, 389, 28 and 128. The 2021 Penfolds Collection. contains over 30 wines. Penfolds has become a fashion house, turning out new styles for every season, except that they’re not new styles but new takes on an existing themes.

The style has changed dramatically from the days when Max Schubert made elegant reds of sublime caliber, complexity and staying power, often with 13% alcohol or less.

The custodians of Grange and its offspring have lost the master’s magic touch, and replaced it with more of everything – super-ripe fruit, massive oak, lots of polish and huge alcohol levels. It seems their leitmotif these days is ‘More is Better’. That goes for other labels as well: Penfolds now makes in excess of 150 wines.

Their website resembles a vast department store where finding what you’re looking for demands steely determination and endless patience.  The Collection is just the beginning.  There are subgroups of wines: Classics, Esteemed Reds, Favourites, vertical sets of wines, gift box sets and more.

Then there’s a section called MAX’s that serves up a mishmash of 7 reds that would embarrass Max, were he still alive. Then there’s the Cellar Reserve with another 9 wines, and 5 more wines appear in the Tribute Range. More embarrassments. Then there are the ordinary wines Penfolds makes, the wines they would rather not talk about: Koonunga Hill et al. Rawson’s Retreat labels no longer mention Penfolds’ name.

It all reminds me of that Stainmaster carpet ad, where the cleaning lady exclaims: Oh, Mr Hart – what a mess!

FOOTNOTE

I sold my last dozen of Grange (1972) many years ago for a decent profit, and I haven’t bought any since. I did buy some St Henri 2010 in 2014 for around $80 a bottle. The critics scored the wine between 98 and 100 points, higher than the then current Grange (2009?). Today the 2010 St Henri sells for about $300 at auction, close to 4 times what I paid 8 years ago. Here’s my take on the 2010 St Henri back in 2010.

The 2018 is another sublime St Henri from a great vintage that scores 97 to 100 points with the critics. It will appreciate in value for sure, and you can buy it for $115 a bottle or $690 for a 6-pack. At that price, you can enjoy it on special occasions over the next 3 decades.

Additional Reading

Penfolds Bin 60A 1962: Australia’s Greatest Wine Ever, via Quill & Pad

Grange, the Big Dilemma, by Tyson Stelzer

Penfolds Grange – Rich Wine – Poor Investment

Yes, we should celebrate the end of the longest lockdown ever – we’ve had so little to celebrate in recent months. We can have friends around at last and share a meal, up to 10 if they’re double vaccinated. So we put together a list of wines fit for modest and not so modest celebs; we’ve gone outside our usual boundaries here, but you can keep the leftovers for Christmas.

MODEST

Deep Woods Harmony Rose 2020 / 21 – 2 for $20 at Vintage Cellars. This is a bargain at its usual price, and steal at this price. Great for lunches and picnics in the sunshine.

Brokenwood Cricket Pitch White 1.5L Magnum 2018 – $24 at Jim’s Cellars. I’m not a huge fan of this wine, but a magnum at this price must come in handy for Freedom from Lockdown and Chrsitmas / New Year celebrations.

Brown Bros Pinot Noir Chardonnay Pinot Meunier NV – $15 at DM’s (member special). This is consistently among the top bubbles around $20, and a steal at this price. I’m grabbing a 6-pack for Christmas / New Year.

Robert Oatley Signature Series Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon Magnum 2018 – $45 at Nicks. A big bottle of classy red from one of our favourite places, big enough to share with friends.

Grosset Gaia Magnum 2016 – $175 at Kemenys. Top notch Bordeaux blend from Jeffrey Grosset at Clare.

AIX Rosé Jeroboam – Aix en Provence – $189 at wine experience. Jeroboams are also called double magnums since they hold 3 litres. Big enough to impress friends and neighbours.

Black Label Champagne Brut NV Magnum – $119 at DM’s. It’s a big name champagne from one of the oldest houses in a big bottle. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, 50, 30, 20. The style is fresh and crisp (no malo), with green apples and lemons tempered by warm bready notes and 4 years in the bottle.

Seppeltsfield 1992 Para Liqueur Tawny – $135 at Seppeltsfield. Almost 30 years old, and always a rich delight.

Bouvet Saphir Saumur Brut Vintage Methuselah – $325 at Nicks. Yes it looks expensive and it’s not from Champagne, but from Saumur down on the river Loire. A Methuselah holds 8 standard bottles, and a Champagne in this format would come with a $2000 price tag – if you could find one down under.

IMMODEST

It’s time to let loose, go OTT, make a splash … and here are some great wines to do that with. On a practical note, magnums and bigger bottles demand a premium because they’re made in tiny volumes. Standard size bottles are both cheaper and more practical, but this is not the time to worry about these minutiae is it?

Fancy Bubbles

Billecart-Salmon Reserve Brut Champagne Magnum – $199 at Nicks. This is one of the better, more individual champagnes from a smaller house focused on quality.

Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV Jeroboam – $500 at Wine Experience. This is one of the finest non-vintages Champagnes you can buy, and the bottle will impress friends and family.

Bollinger Special Cuvee NV Jeroboam with timber box – $600 at the champagne shop. This silky, seamless, superb Champagne is my personal favourite.

Bollinger Rosé NV Jeroboam – $750 at the champagne shop. We can only wonder why it costs $150 to add a bit of pink to a bottle of wine, but it’s a big bottle.

Reds

Argiano Brunello di Montalcino Magnum – $215 at Winesquare. The first Brunello I ever tasted was in Cologne with an old school friend and my best mate Reg from down under. I can still taste it, and Reg still raves about the wild pigeon we had with it. Review at the link

Yalumba The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz Jeroboam 2008 – $500 at Nicks. Review at the link

Clos des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape Magnum 2016 – $550 at Nicks. Review at the link

Penfolds RWT Barossa Shiraz Magnum 2012 – $599 at Nicks. A lot more affordable than a a magnum of Grange

Sweet Treats

Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spätlese Magnum 2019 – $229 at Winesquare. The length of a Riesling magnum is something to behold, and the wine is a joy to drink.

Chateau Rieussec 2006 Magnum – $359 at Winesquare. Top flight Barsac, the twin of Sauternes, 15 years old. Mouthwatering.

Seppelt Para Liqueur 1947 – $490 at JIMURPHY. You can buy a 100-year old Para but a thimble-full will set you back $800. By comparison this is still on the sane side of the ledger, at almost 75 years of age, and probably just as sticky.

Chasing the best quality /price ratio between $20 and $50

You can read Part 4 HERE, Part 2 HERE, and Part 1 HERE

After completing part 2 of this series last year, I looked forward to doing this sequel with great expectations. This time, the disappointments outnumbered the great surprises, and any kind of consistency among the various reviews still eludes us.

Looking at Huon Hooke’s list of top 2019 chardies from Australia – in order of ranking – we find the $17 Blackstone Paddock from Aldi sitting at number 33, just below the $175 Penfold’s Yattarna on number 32. I tried to get a sample at 3 different Aldi stores but no luck. 3 strikes and you’re out.

On Huon’s list of Best Chardonnays in Margaret River, we find the $25 Domaine Naturaliste Floris Chardonnay 2019 nestled comfortably in 6^th place, between the $100 Fraser Gallop Palladian and the $80 Moss Wood.

The 2019 was our top Chardonnay under $25, and one of the best under $50, but it’s long gone. Sadly the 2020 isn’t in the same lofty class. The Discovery 2020 is also underdone. Shame. Is it the vintage?

WILDCARDS

Miles from Nowhere Chardonnay 2020 – $10 at Kemenys (as a secret label). Scores 95 points at the Real Review:  ‘Scents of summer leap out of the glass, stone fruit, nectarine, peach and apricot. Noble reduction, sweet spices, ginger blossom and acacia, super-fine acidity and a slight phenolic grip adds intrigue. A myriad of layers keeps me coming back to this wine. 95 points, Amanda Yallop.

This wine didn’t grab me as much as it did Amanda, but it’s terrific value for money even with our score of 92 points.

The $17 Blackstone Paddock from Aldi is another wildcard. The 2019 picked up trophies for best Chardonnay and Best White at the 2020 Margaret River show. Huon Hooke has been beating the drum for this wine for years – here’s his review of the 2020: ‘Light, bright yellow hue, with an intense grapefruit aroma, very typical Margaret River chardonnay, the palate bright and zesty, intense and alive, with great energy and drive, the acidity balancing a subtle twist of sweetness, before a medium-length finish. A smart wine at an eye-widening price.’

THE SHORTLIST UNDER $30

One of our best picks this year was the Scorpo Aubaine Chardonnay 2019 – still on offer for $28 at Nicks. There’s plenty of flesh on its bones, especially for a Mornington Peninsula chardy, and lots of flavour. The fruit is white peachy, the oak nods toward cashews, there’s a soft touch of struck match. It’s a vibrant chardy, full of life and flavour. Perfect pitch.  96 points. You’d be hard-pushed finding a better chardy for less than $50.

The brilliant Hoddles Creek Estate 2019 has long gone, however. It was a stunning chardy for the money ($20), richer and more full-flavoured than usual. It was a warm year, and I suspect Franco d’Anna allowed more malolactic fermentation than usual.

The Hoddles Creek Estate 2020 is back to the clean, restrained style of the 2018, which I thought would build flavour and character in bottle. I was wrong: It sat on the knife’s edge for a time and then fell over to the lean and mean side.. Gary Walsh likes the 2020 better than the 2019. I have my doubts but bought 6-pack to see what happens.

The first time we tasted it a few months ago, the Kumeau Village Chardonnay 2020 came across as more low-key than the 2019 I love, yet a second bottle we opened this week was much more convincing, full of vibrant energy and tension, yet still with that seamless, silky texture that makes this label a stand-out. No struck matches here, and no oak chips or grapefruit pips to spit out, just a gorgeous Chardonnay that will become another favourite. 94+ points. $19 at Kemenys or DM’s.

Jancis Robinson likes it too: ‘Surprisingly rich nose. Fine, appetising, crisp palate with just a little chewiness still evident at this point. There’s a suggestion of sweet grapefruit juice. Really clean, fresh and long. 16.5 / 100.’

Another wine that impressed us in 2021 is the Isabel Chardonnay 2019 – $25 at DM’s. It’s from a New Zealand winery owned by Dan Murphy’s, so you won’t find it anywhere else. They often run a $25 member offer on this wine, which knocks 4 off the usual price. I liked the 2018 a lot, but it will take another year or two for the oak to calm down. The 2019 is just as rich, round and intense with the oak less intrusive. (95 points)

BEST CHARDIES OVER $30

The price is creeping up but Oakridge still offers great value compared to most of the fancy contenders out there.

The Henk 2019 is fast selling out – you can still get it at Cloudwine for $33. The nose promises finesse and polish, with aromas of white peaches and cashews, and a palate that unfolds like a fan made of the finest silk. After a day or two in the open bottle, it shows more depth and intensity yet the finesses remains. A modern Chardonnay master class. 96 points.

Willowlake 2019 – $32 at MyCellars where the freight is free for subscribers on any quantity (promo code BWU20). All the chardonnays in the Vineyard Series are made the same way, so they tend to be very similar. Willowlake is a tad more crisp and nervy, and shows more citrus and notes of green apple. Needs a bit more time to settle down. 95 points.

The Hazeldene Chardonnay 2019 – $32 at DM’s – is yet another option, which I haven’t tried. MB at The Wine Front likes the ‘minerally tang, great and pretty appley character underlying. It’s firm too; time to burn. A great impact here. Serious and stern and complex. It’s emphatic about Australia’s modern, high quality chardonnay credentials. 95+ points.

Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay 2020 – $36 at Summer Hill Wine. The Braijkovich family makes world-beating Chardonnays from its vineyards at the western outskirts of Auckland. When entered in blind tastings overseas, critics and winemakers often think they’re drinking drinking Corton-Charlemagne or Meursault.

Here’s a recent blind tasting of Kumeu River against top class Burgundies reported by Decanter, and by Jamie Goode at Wine Anorak. Lisa Perotti-Brown from the Wine Advocate said: ‘If you can taste history, duty, and family pride in a glass, it’s there in the Kumeu River Chardonnays … now producing some of New Zealand’s greatest Chardonnays, not to mention the world’s.’

The Real Review’s Bob Campbell describers this wine as ‘a rich, textural and silken chardonnay with tree fruit, peach, nectarine, toast and brioche flavours. A seamless wine with a backbone of bright acidity helping to drive a lengthy finish. A stylish, polished chardonnay. 94 points.

Grand Dame of British Wine critics Jancis Robinson says of the 2020 Estate Chardonnay: ‘Lightly but not excessively reductive on the nose. Already quite expansive on the nose with beautiful impact on the palate: citrus, blossom and really neat acidity without much astringency. Elegant and racy – almost lightweight on the mid palate and then it is impressively persistent. A thorough delight already. 17/20 points.’

Here’are JR’s reviews for the other KR chardies, which range up to $100 in price. The good news for us is that only a single point on JR’s scale separates the most expensive wine (Matè’s Vineyard Chardonnay at 17.5) from the least expensive (Kumeau Village at 16.5). Keep in mind that top class Burgundies cost between $500 and $1000. Also keep in mind that JR is a very hard marker.

James Suckling and Nick Stock give Matè’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2020 a perfect score of 100 points.

Image source: Cam.Doughlas MS.com

Toolangi Pauls Lane Chardonnay 2019 – $37 the Winepress. Last year’s wine was spoilt by excessive sulphide notes (struck matches) which are the products of ‘reductive’ wine making techniques designed to prevent oxygenation. In the 2019 these characters are reduced and allow the stone fruit and gentle oak to shine . Great length and great style. 96 points.

The Dexter Chardonnay 2019 – $38 at betterbythedozen is vibrant in the usual refined framework, with pitch-perfect balance of white peach fruit, pencil shavings oak and the finest acid. Great depth of flavour and a long finish. A classy Chardonnay from the Mornington Peninsula. 96 points.

What about Dappled Chardonnay, the star performer from last year? Shaun Crinion didn’t send me a sample, and it seems other reviewers including the Winefront didn’t get one either. Shaun told me it was a tiny vintage that sold out fast. I found some at Cellarspace for $40 a bottle but didn’t buy any since the wine would most likely be gone by the time I reviewed it.

Shaun says ‘the season produced a beautifully fragrant wine with white flowers and citrus aromas with complex grilled hazelnuts, mille-feuille and hints of flint and smoke. The palate is precise and textured with white stone fruit flavours and citrus mineral line. While absolutely delicious now, as I have seen with the 2017’s this wine will blossom with time and patience.’

There are a few bottles of the single vineyard Dappled ‘Champs de Cerises’ Chardonnay 2020 left at fivewayscellars and Wine Decoded, for about $50.

So how is the 2019 Chardonnay fairing? The wine I gave a rave review and 96 points? It’s one of best Aussie Chardonnays I’ve tasted, regardless of price, the complete package with wonderful energy and tension, a wine that shows more class every time I open a bottle. I’d rate it 97 points now. I wish I’d bought more than three 6-packs.

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

You can read Part 2 HERE, and Part 1 HERE

Confessions of a Peripatetic Wine Tragic

With summer just around the corner, we’re taking a deep dive into cellaring wine, using my own experience of over 4 decades. We’ve finally created the perfect cellar on a shoestring in our new home. Along the way, we blow up a number of myths dished out by the experts on the rules of wine storage.

‘If you’re going to cellar, you need to find a way to keep your wine below 17 degrees Celsius, but ideally between 12 and 15 degrees. If you go above this range, factor in that your wines will develop at a faster rate and are unlikely to cellar long-term.’

That’s the advice from Campbell Mattinson in James Halliday’s Wine Companion. The advice from other experts is a little less prescriptive but they all agree that a constant temperature of around 15 degrees is ideal. That’s absolute rubbish, as I’ve proved over 4 decades of maturing wines in less than ideal conditions. I have 30 year-old reds in perfect condition that prove my point.

For various reasons, the last two decades of my life have been unsettled. I’ve lived in 7 different homes, some owned, some rented. The worst of these for wine storage was a second-story flat in Balmoral. I lived in that spectacular part of the world for almost a decade, with my precious wines tucked into a large hallway cupboard, and taking up all the space under 2 beds in the spare room.

My first cellar in our Avalon house almost met the ideal temperature specs; it was mostly underground, south-facing, below the main bathroom under a concrete ceiling. Alas, access was through a manhole in the wall, and inside it was so squeezy that a jockey would’ve struggled.

The reason was a huge rock that occupied most of the space. I chipped away at it for a while, but it felt as futile as digging an escape tunnel out of Stalag 13 on my own.

The other option was to dig some dirt out from around the rock. That proved a little more productive, and eventually I’d dug out enough dirt to make room for some banana boxes stacked on their sides – remember those rough and heavy hardwood things? They held about 15 bottles and cost nothing at the fruit shop.

Luxury

The next Avalon house sat on a concrete pad, and had a brick garage. I covered the windows and doors with foam, and bought a small eggnishner. It was a leap into wine hyperspace – I had plenty of room I could walk around in without bumping my head, and a straight concrete floor.

Things went downhill from here. The next house at Bilgola had a huge underground area built into the hill, facing south, which was so wide open that the southerlies went straight through it. I was buying most of my wines from wineries at the time, and used the wooden and cardboard boxes they came in to provide a buffer against the weather.

To my surprise it worked for the 5 summers I was there – up on a hill enjoying cool breezes. Then came an old block of flats at Cremorne Point, which had a south-facing garage of solid double brick construction. That worked when the weather was dry, but water leaked in after heavy rain.

Tough Love

Next was the second-floor flat at Balmoral, one street away from the promenade. It was an old block of 4 flats, solid double brick, small windows, well insulated from the elements. This would really test my theory that it was more important to protect wine from sudden changes in temperature than keeping it at a constant 17 degrees, but all my wine was on the line here.

Of course I thought about storing my wines at Kennards or the Wine Ark, but their facilities were expensive and a long way from home, and I preferred to spend the money on more wine. I have to admit to a few sleepless nights during hot summers at Balmoral, when the inside thermometer nudged 25 degrees.

One concession I made was upgrading my wine boxes to industrial strength, so I kept hunting for the right kinds of boxes in the DM stores on the lower North Shore. However, the best boxes by far came from Calabria Wines in Griffith, and I used them for my most precious wines. More here including pictures.

The Black Diamond

Some 5 years ago Tracey’s wonderful mum went into aged care in Berry, south of Sydney, after enjoying a full and active life.. It was a sad time but at long last, Tracey said YES to a question I had asked her almost 17 years before. We were married on a cloudless summer’s day at the Silos winery near Berry, with our mum watching and crying with joy.

We decided to rent in Thirroul, a beachy suburb of the Illawarra, the halfway point between Berry for visiting mum and Sydney where my kids lived. If we liked Thirroul, we planned to buy there.

It was the first time we’d lived in the same house; until then we were just spending weekends together. That arrangement had worked like a treat for nearly two decades, and we both wondered if living together full-time might kill the magic. It didn’t (but it had its moments).

Most of the wine went under the stairs in the house we moved into, the rest into the laundry. It was a modern house with air-conditioning, which we only used during heat waves.

After a while, we found that Thirroul didn’t really grab us. So, after our mum left this world (fortunately before the world was turned upside down by a virus), we decided to move to further south. We’ve always loved the South Coast, especially Kangaroo Valley, where our mum used to live. Yet, we really love the water and the beach. We decided to rent in Kiama to get to know the place before we bought.

No Country for Tall Men

The house near the top of Barney Street had a perfect little cellar, built into a steep hill, double brick, concrete ceiling and a dry dirt floor. The only challenge was a ceiling height of 5 foot, which wasn’t a good match for my 6 foot 4 frame. Getting the wine boxes in there was a backbreaking effort, on par with my first cellar in Avalon, the one with the big rock in the middle. Only this time I was 40 years older.

Our wines were getting older too, and I have to confess that they’d survived in better shape than I had. Ullages on old reds don’t come much better, do they?

I dug some of the floor out to gain more height but soon struck bedrock. Tracey bought me a small metal stool so at least I could sit down. She took pity on me, I think, emerging daily from the cellar looking like a pained pretzel. I ended up channeling Quasimodo, getting around dragging the metal stool behind me. The things we do for the love of wine!

Is there anybody out there?

We must’ve looked at close to 100 houses, and not a single one came with a cellar or a suitable space for one. What on earth is wrong with people? Are they really happy to drink 2-year-old reds that burn the enamel off their teeth? And 6-month-old Rieslings or Semillons that would make great paint strippers?

We decided to cast the net wider and ended up buying a much bigger house than we planned, just across the border in Shellharbour.  It’s walking distance to the emerging marina at Shell Cove and to the old village, harbour and beaches. There was no cellar, but the garage was big enough to serve as a ballroom when the lockdown was over, so we decided to build a cellar in one corner of it.

Our builder suggested a commercial cool room, which we had made-to-measure by Campbelltown Coolrooms. The walls were made of 100mm thick, floor-to-ceiling polystyrene panels sandwiched by powder-coated steel. Tracey was thrilled that she could choose the Surfmist colour to match the walls. But, just after the materials were delivered, greater Sydney went into lockdown, and for reasons known to no one, Shellharbour was included. So, our builder couldn’t come in from Berry to install the thing. Bummer.

Tracey isn’t one to take no for an answer, so she hunted around for a cool room installer. Not easy to find, as it turned out. Over the next 10 weeks she spoke to as many tradesmen. 9 of them promised to pop in and quote but never turned up or didn’t even bother to return her calls or texts.

Meanwhile our entire cellar lived in the sitting room, and the weather was beginning to warm up …

Stairway to Heaven

The problem was that all the tradies in lockdown (or maybe their wives) had decided to fix all those things around their houses that they’d ignored for years. In the end we found Laurence, a builder from south of Nowra who called when he said he would, came when he promised, and did a perfect job despite some bits and pieces missing from the material CC had supplied.

The result resembles a sleek white bank vault. Temperature is stable and slow to change, with no need for air conditioning, which translates to a huge saving in electricity. The wines sit on 5 sets of $50 shelves, up to 6 boxes per shelf (36 bottles), so our 800 bottles have left enough room for an extra 400. There’s also room for a 6^th set of shelves should we ever need it.

The salient points:

• Total Capacity: just under 1300 bottles
• Total cost including racks and installation: $3650
• No electricity needed, and nothing to break down or wear out
• We’ve proved over 4 decades that constant temperature control is overkill.

And who needs humidity control in the age of the Stelvin closure? And do I really need to put my wines on display? Only if I want to impress friends and neighbours.

• I could let the boxes go now that the environment is controlled, but why? Most of our wines are 6-packs of the same wine, with labels on the boxes.

Ready-made options

• Grand Cru 290 – $4300 for a 92 bottle cabinet / fridge – ‘you cannot be serious’

Vintec 1000 Bottle Walk-in Wine Cellar – $24,000 at Harvey Norman. More details at Vintec. Fancy pull-out shelves, multiple temperature zones, air-conditioning, humidity control etc.

Underground Spiral Cellar – capacity unknown, $42,000 at thisiswhyimbroke. The name of the site says it all, doesn’t it?

If money is no object, there are of course many more fancy options

5 Luxury Homes With Exquisite Wine Cellars

MORE READING 

The Rough Guide to Cellaring Wine in a Hot Climate – A Survival Guide for Apartment Dweller

17 Homemade Wine Cellar Plans You Can Build Easily. If you have some suitable space, some of these ideas might make the last weeks of the lockdown more rewarding. Please note that I haven’t had time to check the details.

HOW TO BUILD A WINE CELLAR IN A WEEKEND, with lots of pictures.

Penfolds launches $168,000 wine – Gago gone Gaga? I was reminded of this ludicrous leap into wine hyperspace back in 2012, when I read about Penfolds’ latest leap into eccentric creations that have little to do with wine or the legendary Max Schubert.

The latest offer is a $95,000 bespoke music cabinet with a valve amplifier and a Penfolds-branded turntable. Apparently Max was a music lover. Is that so? He’s been dead almost 30 years, and now someone remembers that he loved music?

What’s the Occasion?

We’re celebrating 70 years of Grange. ‘Only seven individually crafted pieces have been produced globally (I think they mean in toto),’ says Penfolds, ‘paying homage to the “all in one” console design from the 1950s – the same decade Grange was first created by Max Schubert.’

‘As if a symphony (sic), parallels are drawn between the creation of a blend and the marriage of voice and instrument. Inside, wine lovers are welcomed by the rare “White Capsule” release Grange magnum duo of vintage 2010 and 2017. Hidden within the wine console compartment that also houses a suite of luxury accessories including a hand-blown Grange Decanter, crafted by leading Australian glass artist and designer, Nick Mount.’ More Here

You’d think they could afford a competent copywriter or proof reader, wouldn’t you? And what’s so special about the white capsule?

From Rolex to Citizen

Max worked for Penfolds his entire life yet Penfolds didn’t show much appreciation for his enormous contribution. As Richard Farmer reminds us, ‘The loyal servant of Penfolds had always hoped his farewell would be celebrated in that old fashioned way with a good watch. A Swiss Rolex was to be his pride and joy but he just got a Japanese Citizen, and for the rest of his life there was not even a free case of his masterpiece every vintage.’

This slap in Max’s face is staggering. He retired in 1975, just before the Penfold family sold out to Sydney brewer Tooth & Co. Max had to wait years for recognition, which came much later in the form of the inaugural Maurice O’Shea Award, an Order of Australia, Decanter magazine’s Man of the Year in 1988, and an Australia Day Citizen Award in 1991.

From Grand and Gaudy to Cheap and Chintzy

For decades, Penfolds (these days owned by TWE) has milked Max’s name for all it’s worth. The great man has been so much more valuable dead than alive. The milking has seen highs and lows – the latter finding their ultimate expression in wines made for Chinese New Year. More in Max’s Collection & Tribute Range – Why is Penfolds Trashing a Great Australian’s Name for a Fistful of Dollars?

More recently, the Chinese New Year offering has gone up-market with a magnum of Bin 389 in a special box. It’s over $300. Some Bin 389 with your dim sums, Sir? Here are the tasting notes from Penfolds’ website:

‘Balance of the sweet (cabernet) and the savoury (shiraz). Possesses what has now often been referred to as a black forest cake 2018 vintage flavour profile. Darker fruits – closer to that of a black cherry liqueur than a crème de cassis component of Kir. Flavours of roasted beetroot – a venison sauce beetroot reduction … similar texturally to a congealed sweet fat (a custardy emulsion/film – not a grainy paste). Oak and tannins absorbed. Both are certainly present, yet not at all demanding their own space on this Bin 389 stage. Substantial, intense.’

I’m not making this up, I swear. ‘ … similar texturally to a congealed sweet fat (a custardy emulsion/film – not a grainy paste) … ‘ Who writes this garbage? And what are they smoking? Or vaping?

Here’s Campbell Mattinson’s review from The Wine Front: ‘It’s a showy Bin 389 or perhaps by that I mean that the oak shows quite a bit. It’s also warm through the finish. It’s substantially flavoured, a bit ferrous, a bit meaty, with coffee, toast and dark chocolate notes adding beef to blackberry, blackcurrant and gum leaf. It has the substance and the structure to age well, if not superbly. I tossed up between 93 and 94 here and, after revisiting many times, finally settled on the former, though it was a close-run thing. It’s not quite as compelling as I expect Bin 389 to be, but its quality is still high.’

Ho Hum. Campbell had to work very hard to avoid telling us that this bin 389 is disappointing and overpriced. Maybe better served with red bean buns? Or maybe use it as a present for someone you want to impress, and have some Chinese rice wine instead?