Sterling Wine Auctions Australia

Wine Auction Review & News February 2010.

 

To know what we don’t know.  Truly for some, it is not written unless they write it.

I love the great quote from Donald Rumsfeld, Knowns and unknowns;

It is Ok to focus on what you know you don’t know but worry about what you don’t know you don’t know etc  (full quote at foot)

The wine auction business and the wine business at large is suffering badly from a lack of “knowing”. Let’s stay away from the wine industry woes and the drama mill. The leaders and experts ebb and flow like waves of suicidal lemmings.

 

Funny enough the hard working, quality wine producers, who didn’t borrow big or grow too fast are making good to excellent progress in the current wine industry mess. Let’s throw in, as a given, good well established brands and distribution before 2005, when referring to these hard working Wine producers that are making good progress.

 

My 2010 tip for independent (family owned) wine producers:

 

Ignore the industry leaders and experts, make your best possible wines and focus on the traditional markets that have served you well. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water; focus on common sense and refinement. Radical and revolutionary action is best left to Uni students.

 

The Oz wine world is dominated by the “store wars” raging between Woolies and Coles fuelled by wine war mongers like Fosters and Constellation. Buy one get one free; 30% discounts etc have seen this battle ground drag every spare “wine buy dollar” out of the nation’s wallets.  Now we all have cases of bargains tucked away. Knowing what great wines we have in the cellar for the future.

 

Well let’s take an new look at what we know.

 

First my declaration of interest. I make my living selling wine at auction and acting as agent for commission. The Current “store war” is bad for my business as it has sucked “wine buy dollars”, that would otherwise have gone to auction, into retail bargains.  Sterling has been in the Wine Auction business for over 15 years and know that the new wines cellars dedicated to just about every Aussie man, woman and child will be the auction boon of the next five years.

 

What are we buying and why? Is there a tendency to accumulate volumes of wine the commentators recommend as quality because it’s cheap? 

 

How much of this wine do we like?

 

How much of this wine do you end up drinking?

 

How many commentators have personal taste and style preferences that may not be in line with yours?

 

More important how many commentators review wines that are not current vintage?

 

This is not an exercise in bagging well intentioned expert advice. There are many Wine scribes who have blessed and educated us for decades with their genuine love of the subject, combined with huge talent and hard work. These guys have earned our respect and appreciation.

 

This is the promotion of new thinking for the new decade. Let’s try the road less travelled prepared to hit some dead end and discover life changing experiences.

 

Back to basics; if we are each drinking more than a dozen bottles of wine a month; we are drinking TOO much. The medicos tend to agree that two standard drinks a day is a good balance.

 

We all know what we would like to be drinking. How many actually drink their dream wines each night?

 

I want to be remembered for promoting two simple wine ideas.

 

Break the group gathering tradition of emptying one bottle before the next is opened.

Open all the bottles that need opening, use lots of glasses, have more than one wine in front of you at a time and give your glass at least an hour to open up and express all the promise of the vintage and hard work added by the winery.

 

Use good big glasses, limit yourself to one glass for each wine and SAVOR. Sip and indulge (of course drinking responsibly). Be a new decade minimalist. Less is more!  There is no shame in re-corking and storing leftovers.

 

Drink one Glass of wine with each meal; Make it a bloody good one!

Don’t be distracted by tricks, yes you can drink with breakfast; No: Poring a whole bottle into your über Bordeaux Glass is NOT with the program.

 

The rules. One good serve in a special glass (150-250ml) or two half serves in super tasters at the same meal or spread over two.

Be Bold!  A beautiful serve of Riesling or Semillon with Breakfast, Pinot Noir with Morning tea, or a Glass of Champagne before bed.

 

Trying sharing a lick of luscious sticky Rutherglen Tokay with someone you love!

 

The new minimalist in you would adjust back if Beer or Spirits were added to the equation.

 

Don’t let issues with storing the leftovers be an excuse for breaking the new rules.

 

For $30 you can go to your liquor retailer and buy a can of special food grade argon gas “Wine Save” which is good for 50 uses.

 

My favourite is using a 375ml half wine bottle. Fill it up soon as you have pulled the cork on the drinking bottle and pop the newly filled half straight in the fridge. (Fridge for reds and whites and make the air space as small as possible.) If the wine is young and you are feeling lazy, just pop in the cork and stick the bottle in the fridge, as is. Good for a few days.

 

The gas or the topped up half bottle will give you a week or two of tip top freshness particularly if left in the fridge.

 

We started off with Donald’s clever brain teaser party trick. Known Unknowns Unknown Unknowns etc

 

Applied to your daily wine indulgence and the bottles in your cellar.

 

You know what you like and what bottles will be opened for special occasions, You know your circle; who appreciates great wine and you know when to pull out the “Neighbour or BBQ” wine

You don’t know if the special bottle will disappoint or if the special occasion didn’t turn out to be special enough.  Nor do you know if the ordinary back vintage cheapie destined to be opened when you are alone will turn out to be one of your most memorable wine experiences.

 

Applied to the world of wine and your passport to explore

Unknown Unknowns There are passed vintages, unfashionable bagged and forgotten; There are wines that never made it; brands fallen by the wayside. Gems lost: Treasures hidden and forgotten.

Be bold; take risks. Break the mould. Don’t condemn yourself to a tunnel of boredom, same wines for the same reasons. Cheap by the dozen, Recommended by the scribe.

 

 

Next time you read the honeyed silky seductive works of the reviewer or the on-line retailer; bear in mind the review is not updated as each year rolls by. Sadly nor do the crash and burn late bloomers (a wine that is released and reviewed before it presents at its best)  get a second chance.

 

There is an exception, Penfolds “Rewards of Patience” publishes updated reviews of all vintages of premium Penfolds wine including  Grange.  All other late bloomers, and the list is SO long, are outside the system and languish on the sidelines.  

 

Be bold, seek out the lost treasure. Virgin Hills was one of the truly great Australian wines of 1970’s and 80’s. These back vintages come through auctions (fewer these days) and sell for peanuts.

 

There was a time, twenty and thirty years ago, when Redmans Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon was more highly prized and more valuable than Henschke Hill of Grace. Redman Cabernet and Claret back vintages, particularly the big formats, magnums and imperials are CHEAP auction regulars.

 

So many of these stories. Peel Estate, Stonyfell Metala, Seppelts Dorrien and Drumborg Cabernet. Rosemount Balmoral. Explore; Buy interesting bottles and share. I have a 1976 Idyl Vineyards Geelong Cab Shiraz ready for my next event.

 

TRY drinking less and better quality. Add another dimension. Drink lesser vintages of the greats.

Look at the auction sales results. Cullens Cab Merlot. Moss Wood Cabernet, Penfolds St Henri, Noon Reserve Shiraz and Cabernet. D’arenberg Dead Arm, Henschke Mt Edelstone.

 

Try a bottle of 2001 Penfolds St Henri (star wine from Rewards of Patience “a long future ahead”) for $60 hammer fall

 

How about Henschke Mt Edelstone 2005, 2003, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1997, 1995, 1994 all for around $70 hammer fall

 

My value favourite D’arenberg Dead Arm with at least half a dozen back vintages selling at auction for around $60 a bottle.

 

Margaret River Cabernet lovers would like to keep secret the bargain prices for Cullen cab Merlot back vintages. There are quite a few with hammer fall in the $80 a bottle range.

 

There are some harsh realities and in these challenging times, the unemployed / underemployed and old folks on fixed incomes just can’t stretch the budget to an $80 bottle.

There is still good news from the wine auctions.

 

You don’t have to spend more than $25 a bottle for a fabulous experience

 

Look for recent classy vintages 2004 2002 1998 1996 of Stonyfell Melata, Tahbilk Cab Sauv & Shiraz, Saltram Mamre Brook, Redmans Cabernet and Shiraz. Wynns Coonawarra Shiraz and Cabernet Blends. There are Penfolds  Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet lovers who got nuts over the back vintages.

 

Play the lesser vintage game with the stars of the Middle ranks. Penfolds Bin 28 128 and 407 from the less celebrated vintages like 2000 and 1997 1999 1993

 

I believe the 1983 Penfolds Grange Hermitage was a sleeper for many years and only in later life achieved high praise and status as a classic Grange.

 

My big call for the year is to buy 2006 Margaret River premium Cabernets.

 

It seems a number of wine scribes have mega bagged this vintage. Recent Auction prices for the Moss Wood around $50 are just RIDICULIOUS!! (I love this wine which has matured markedly since release with the unpopular green minty leafiness moving into tobacco leaf flavours. Yes this is way to clever for me; I have experienced the change but the summary is a quote from the Lady Boss of Moss Wood)

 

I recently tried and loved the regular 2006 Vasse Felix MR Cabernet which currently has an Auction price under $30 a bottle!!!  A Major Bargain for a classy beautifully structured wine. 

 

LESSON:  If these two wines were put in front of the critics now. What a different story. The Story sadly is only written once.

 

I am a big Laurence of Arabia movie fan; Think of the man or wine for whom the story is not yet written!

 

 

Ali: El Aurens. Truly for some men, nothing is written unless they write it.

Lawrence: Not El Aurens. Just Lawrence.            Ali: El Aurens is better.

 

Sterling Wine Auctions are every month go to www.sterlingwine.com.au for the calendar and more information

 

DONALD RUMSFELD From a Press Conference at NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, June 6, 2002 [2][3]       Now what is the message there? The message is that there are known "knowns." There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that's basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year, we discover a few more of those unknown unknown

 February 2010