Sterling Wine Auctions: Customer Service

Hey Big spender, drink a little wine with me!
What’s good?
What does it cost?
Who knows what’s good?

Again I find myself alone in the watch tower, under pressure to grind out some lines to meet commitments to Winestate magazine and the Sterling Website.

All is not well, All is not bad, in fact we are overwhelmed by choice and limitless wine joy in easy reach. Interesting times indeed.

I want to highlight some extremes; the questions left for you; “just how extreme?” and “has the passing of time made us more aware of change”?

I fear becoming a slighted old smart Alec who is good at sitting back and finding fault from the comfort of a warm and comfy sofa. Not to mention the Goldfish bowl that is my limited perspective driven by a small circle of exposure and influence.

NB My first word on the subject of what wine producers could or should do.

These are better men and women than I could every be.

Imagine having to made decisions every day that will be proven right or wrong in up to fifteen years. Knowing if you get it wrong, that wrong step could be your last.

Wine producing folk are a rare and wonderful breed.

So what is good?

We have so many red wines coming out of Australia that taste more and more alike. That must mean that big juicy jammy fruit sandwiched between lashings of oak and monster alcohol must be good. Well maybe I am the only one who is out of step. But I don’t like it!

Ok Generalizing, but the current crop of popular wines, across most price points, taste pretty much the same.

It seems that there are penalties for letting, non shiraz varietal flavors dominate.

We have had Sterling customers bring back wonderful leafy ten year old Margaret River Cabernets as faulted. They were so out of step with what Cabernet actually tasted like, it’s pure expression was seen as a fault.

Lots of winging has gone into the subject of the tail shaking the dog and how to deal with the wine show system. Experts are very important in helping identify faults and improve quality.

When it comes to what actually tastes good, maybe more mums and dads should be in the loop.

My big beef with the show system is the current fashion in Sauvignon Blancs and Sem Sauvignon Blends. Some of the wine being recognized by the show system as the top of the crop is almost undrinkable.

Great structure, stunning nose fabulous palate but more than two glasses and your into the Quickeaze ant acid treatments.

Remember when SSB was SO dangerous, because it just slipped down way too easily. Try finding SB or SSB with a few gongs that isn’t as sharp as broken glass.

Many this is a conspiracy? I love conspiracies. How about this being a cunning plan for Aussie Shiraz producers to fight back the NZ Sauv Blanc invasion? Must be working! We come across many Smart in touch gals getting out there, breaking the mould and dumping the “Sauvy” for Big Bold Barossa red.

The name Virgin Hills always gets me going. Lets not get onto how such a wonderful brand was unwound; rather, lets look at some back vintages.

We recently entertained a big wheel from Hong Kong with the budget to stock his cellar with the very biggest guns from Bordeaux.

This guy pours stella vintage Lafite, Latour and Mouton like we splash out the Golden Circle pine orange.

Nice guy and very generous, he offered to bring a 2003 Mouton to the table. I refused suggesting we could come up with some Aussie wines that he might enjoy.

Heck; people have laughed at me before, nothing ventured nothing lost! So I went with a Virgin Hills 1988 and a 1994 Xanadu Semillon. The Big man loved the Virgin Hills Bordeaux blend from Macedon Ranges in high altitude Victorian, Kept saying it was like Lafite!

Doesn’t matter if he is the best or worst judge, the point is, almost everyone else has decided that old Virgin Hills wines are no good; too thin, no big wack of sweet fruit etc.

Ok; you just have a market for your product. But if you went looking for producers dedicated to low alcohol traditional style Cabernet driven Bordeaux blends, there’s not much on offer.

A few strugglers in Yarra Valley and Tassie. Maybe Domaine A is the best current standard bearer.

The Old Xanadu Sem was a stunner.

It started as a big worry to our high roller friends, who were sure that at fourteen year of age the 1994 Margaret River Darling was best used in the kitchen.

Old Sems are hard work with huge rewards for the patient.

Straight out of the bottle there were no complaints; pretty good and easy to drink.

I insisted that new glasses were set allowing the Sem to sit on table for an hour as attention focused on the stunning food and an endless procession of wines that were consumed with great enthusiasm and athleticism.

Going back to the Sem was just DEVINE; perfect temperature, opened and lifted almost beyond imagination; wonderful, subtle and perfumed

“Horses for courses” is the maxim we all should work to.

My great wine goal is to get the message through that racing down one bottle before opening another is bad and wrong.

Lets not get into the binge thing, you know we are talking about responsible safe consumption.

My friend Ross is a perfect leader for the get me quick brigade. A man with huge wine industry success, Ross is judge, jury and executioner known to put a wine “down the sink” if it has not shown its tricks on command.

This is a tough one; Ross knows his onions and has a very experienced palate.

At Sterling we have many different wine interest groups join us for tastings. A tough bunch who demand the highest standards are the members of the Gunzberg Foundation wine group.

At a recent tasting aiming to strip down the Shiraz phenomena, we looked at twenty Shiraz wines over thirty vintages and many price points. The 1975 Trevor Jones Kellermeister Hermitage was faded but very fine; through to a 2006 offering from Broomstick Estate in Margaret River.

There were three wine that stood out; the 2004 Massena Eleventh Hour, the 1984 Zema Estate and the 1988 Guigal Cotes Du Rhone.

Funny enough it was the French cheapie that really had the group going. The Massena was a wonderful pure clean expression of Shiraz fruit. The Zema was a freakish drink that was in great shape and offered generous developed fruit and very smart bottle aged characters.

The Frenchy was thrown in to show off traditional winemaking. Funky, mushroomed and musty this intriguing little number demanded attention and cleaned up in the glass to show some real class and mass appeal.

Just goes to show that trying to pin down that elusive X factor is a dangerous game.

The progression of French chepie Shiraz is a very interesting story. I have been banging on about this area for some time. The new perspective demands a good look at a progression in styles.

This is where wine auctions shine

Go to the auction catalogues and pick up some Rhone wines from the 1980’s and 1990’s. This doesn’t have to be an expensive exercise, aim for some entry level cote du Rhones wine a few steps up in the Guigal or Chaputier high achy.

Try to string together a few old bottles with 2003 or 2004 or 2005. My experience is very rewarding. The Frogs are not taking all this Aussie wine export success lightly.

The older wines are interesting and full of character, bit like pieces in an art gallery.

The newer wines are very impressive; fresh clean, complex and thank heavens, approachable!

OK I hit 50 last year and my teeth will soon go the way of my hair and all fall out, maybe in my dotage I cant deal with amped up reds. Danger to the pacemaker etc.

Do me a favor go down to the Bottlo, try a few new release French Rhone Wines under $40 and let me know how they grab you

Earlier on we asked how the connection between cost and quality worked.

I might as well get all my biases out in the open.

Top French bubbles are really expensive. But top champagne is a joy that we can not match. Is the century’s of experience or the billion dollar bank roll that gives the frogs the edge?

Heck who knows, (excuse me I must follow our glories leaders example here) I’m buggered if I know. (Wonder if he knows what being buggered means?)

I have often recommended young wine lovers pool their resources and lash out and spend $300 on a top bottle of Champagne. Get four or six together and make a night of it. Throw on a good meal and use the Champs as the aperitif and after dinner digestive.

We must all make sacrifices for research.

Research should always be fun, go down to Ikea and buy some black wine glasses. There are a few different types available. Let me know if you find black glass XL5’s.

We all get tricked by the brain.

Pour a wine, for others into black glasses and let them work on the taste and smell, short of the color of course. Good fun and very useful, gets you in touch with your senses.

Going back to the start, bowing low and dipping the lid to all those who make a living making wine;

When it comes to wine styles; It’s hard to know which way to turn.

Recently Sterling sold a swag of 2001 Willow Bridge Black Dog Shiraz.

This one is a bit tricky, premium release price ($60-70) with most of the vintage being dragged into a wine investment scheme.

A few years hard time in the cooler has made this baby a very tough customer.

A sample bottle assaulted me and stole the company payroll! You get the picture. The heavy glass bottle is to stop the wine escaping!

What would I know: A wine that was a caricature of King Kong to me, has a dedicated and sophisticated following. Not a tattoo or broken nose in sight.

Funny, for some, too much is never enough and for others… who cares. They will never get beyond the price tag.

If it’s very expensive it must be very good.

Sterling Wine Auctions & Exchange conduct monthly wine sales. For more go to www.sterlingwine.com.au

August 2008

Sterling Wine Auctions Australia

Hey Big spender, drink a little wine with me! What’s good? What does it cost? Who knows what’s good?

Hey Big spender, drink a little wine with me!
What’s good?
What does it cost?
Who knows what’s good?