Sterling Wine Auctions & Exchange Market Review June 2011
The wine auction scene is taunted by twin extremes of a rampant dollar and retail wine dumping on an unprecedented scale.
As the $A pushes up and through the $US1.10 barrier imported premium wines, including back vintages are becoming more common in the collectors cellar. Rare Champagnes and Italian Barolos, once the preserve of the trans-Atlantic Gatsby set are finding the huge $A irresistible!
Dumping, Dumpers and Dumpsters: Where will it end? The bottom end of the wine market is a paradise for the generic wine lover.
We can all go back to Omar Khayyam times and be happy -
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread-and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness-
O, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
The big Retail chains have achieved a time warping move away from brands and image moving monster volumes of “good enough” bottled wine at $A2 and below. They should do the package and sell a book of Oz footy songs and a loaf of Tip-top white sandwich slices with each discounted 6 pack.
No end in sight; there are still plenty of mega tanks of good wine in SE Australia that won’t be exported at current exchange rates.
The savage 2011 vintage has seen SA wine production slashed as wet and hot weather turned gold into rot.
The sobering twist; VIC, NSW and WA brothers in wine were ready to share their surplus to help out the sad hungry mob in SA. The orders never came! Plenty of surplus in SA tanks from past vintages to cover off the shortfalls.
The serious wine drinkers will never admit their consumption of “carafe wine” is a new budget measure. My take is a silver lining . Many canny wine lovers are using the saving on day to day drinking to buy a trophy for occasions.
A new wine equation? Drink 10 bottles of $2 Generic and buy one bottle of Rockford Basket Press with the savings?
The vortex of wine madness is still centred in Hong Kong with every bottle of premium Bordeaux particularly first growths, being fought over to the death of common sense.
Breath taking prices are being set as new records almost every day.
The hottest name in wine investment still stays as Chateau Lafite Rothschild.
Like so many too good to be true stories, beware of the facts being conveniently spread around to suit vested interests.
A few hundred super rich (out of one billion China-wine-phyles) are driving the auction scene and doting on a tiny number of super wines and vintages.
Throw in a big name celebrity selling his cellar and the brew starts to boil. This madness has been seen before with over-rich Japanese Arabs and Euro Czar’s fighting over boxes of Petrus 1982 and Domaine Romaee Conti.
The China wine world is huge and immensely valuable. My take is that 95% is low end that WILL be taken up by Chinese domestic production over the next five years.
Don’t underestimate the size of the remaining 5%. Far more important - Don’t EVER underestimate the competition, wineries all over the world, chasing that 5%. Just the way “the inscrutable’s” like it!
Recent Sterling wine auctions have featured some bargains and stories worth sharing.
We all have funny old things in our lives, Sterling is a bit like the “fabled secret Elephant burial grounds” The tusks and bones of the great rogues of the past are respectfully carried to Sterling for appropriate memorial!
Grand old commemorative bottles of whisky are the most dramatic of the past Rogues.
The May catalogue carried a good example.
What is a Aberlour Glenlivet Edinburgh International 1879 - 1979 CENTENARY Special Reserve Scotch Malt Whisky in a crystal decanter decanter worth? Find another and tell me. The lucky buyer who paid over $200 might need a pair.
Snobby tendencies set in and the irritation of counselling dozens of aged Yalumba Race horse port owners doesn’t help with fond feelings.
No Madame, They are not valuable,
If uncle billy said they were worth a fortune , sell them to him.
Yes Madame, they were very valuable 20 years ago, they are not valuable now,
Sorry Madame, I cannot explain why; other than to say, the demand is not there anymore and prices have fallen.
No Madame, I cannot explain why demand has gone away.
I go through this routine with Sterling customers every other day. It is a lot of fun and I always take the time (even when busy) to listen to the stories.
Buy Yalumba race horse ports, just for fun or to drink a very smart fortified. The May catalogue sold a set of five different vintages; 1976 to 1980 for just on $15 a bottle.
The “unopened box” story is a pot boiler with lots of interest and questions.
When an unopened box is catalogued, Sterling sets up a fair contest between the rich and the poor enthusiast by offering each bottle “from an unopened case” meaning you can buy one bottle or buy the lot and get the box.
Recent Sterling Auctions have seen unopened boxes of Mount Mary Quintet and Rockford Basket Press attract serious interest.
Hard to please everyone. Some buyers insist on unopened meaning just that. Demanding proof that the de-flowering will be their joy.
We don’t make much money but we do enjoy the work.
Vintage blindness is a problems for some a blessing to others. My favourite value vintage from SA is 2001.
A sleeper that has bloomed and missed the focus of the fat wallet set. Interesting many 2001 wines scored big Parker points with many commentators showing great interest in this promising vintage.
Previewing the string of Oz 2001 stars from Sterling May catalogue are like a trip to the finals of Miss Universe. Balnaves of Coonawarra The Tally Reserve 2001 Devils Lair 2001 Cabernets Margaret River Elderton Command 2001 Shiraz Barossa Valley Henschke Hill of Grace 2001 Shiraz Eden Valley Houghton Gladstones 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Margaret River Houghton Jack Mann 2001 Cabernet Blend Great Southern Majella The Malleea 2001 Cabernet Shiraz Coonawarra Moss Wood 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Margaret River Mount Mary Quintet 2001 Cabernets Yarra Valley Munari Sugar Loaf 2001 Shiraz Bendigo Penfolds RWT 2001 Shiraz Barossa Valley
These beauties will look even better in swim suits every year for the next decade, won’t ask dumb questions; and no, don’t dream of world peace.
Did you spot the ring in?
Sadly the life of a secondary market wine merchant is not all beer and skittles. The Munari Sugar Loaf 2001 Shiraz Bendigo is an example of a wine bargain that will sell way below its real worth. The real value of a strong brand and quality distribution can never be underrated. If this “good enough” strong wine sells cheaply and falls into the hands of a caring communicator… who knows - the story of the next vintage might be different.
The story – the telling and the remembering - without the updating. A lesson for us all. Moss Wood 2006 Cabernet is the ”Benjamin Button curious tale” of recent Sterling catalogues. A wine that championed the curious 2006 vintage with a gentle long cool summer. On release the minty cool freshness was seen to be a fault and the “experts” bagged this fine wine.
Sold out at half recommended retail in the May auction this is the bargain of the decade.
Moss Wood website compares this wine with classic late bloomers like1987. The lesson, never forget that reviews are a snapshot and very few re-visits are part of the wine scribes world.
Sterling Wine Auctions run live on line auctions every month. For more information go to www.sterlingwine.com.au
June 2011