Sterling Wine Auctions Australia

Sterling Wine Auction Report

Has Grange peaked?

Will the 2005 vintage of Penfolds Grange be the release that failed?

Most reviews are luke warm and the retail price at $550 is a serious hurdle than is only attractive to a small group of die hards and committed collectors.

It looks like Granny is a big part of the market hiding a few bottles under the bed for the grandkids 21st birthdays. 

The fine folks at Fosters are doing their best, but their shocking failures of the past few years don?t inspire confidence. Can the Fosters Beers boys be trusted with the future of our most internationally famous wine?

Word has it that production of 2005 Grange is huge and their are seriously big quantities on offer in the domestic and international markets. On offer, not selling, time will tell if this is the Grange disaster we had to have!

 

Auction prices for Penfolds Grange are still very strong, bordering on record levels for many back vintages. Looks like the poor value of the current release is a driver for many serious collectors who are seeing back vintages as a bargain. So called poor vintages like the 1993, 1995 and 1997 are selling at auction between $300-350. Close to half the price of the full 2005 release recommended retail.

 

Lets push quality and value. Super vintages like the 1996, 1998 and the 2004 are selling at auction between $400-500. Much better wines than the 2005; ready to drink and still change in the pocket. Sound like  a winning deal!

 

To complete the equation let?s look at Legends like the 1990 Grange. Voted the best wine in the world, 1990 seels at auction for around $550, about the same as the current release.  And the Perfect Grange Hermitage? The peerless 1976; $500-600 will buy you a bottle of this life changing, Robert Parker 100pt  miracle wine.

 

Bargain Grange?  Well if Robert Parker points make the wine world go round, go for the 2001 and 2002 vintages of Penfolds Grange. Both selling at auction between $350-400 and Mr Parker has bestowed serious 98pts on these undervalued darlings.

 

For my money Grange is a boring necessity that works for folks who need Mercedes Benz and Rolex props.  Stick with Penfolds; buy the RWT or Bin 707, keep the change (lots of change) and enjoy that knowing smile shared by those whose ahead of the market. Enjoy the best before it is taken over by the flash set!

 

What?s going on at auction? 

 

The current wine industry crisis has combined with persistently high $A Aus Dollar exchange rates and two retail giants intent on high street bare knuckle contests have created the perfect storm. 

 

Retail prices are as low / lower? than ever and the addicted wine collector is busy building humpies on the back of the garage and hiring shipping containers to house the HUGE purchases that are just too good and too cheap to miss out.

 

We are already seeing HUGE auction catalogues stacked with gems that can be quite young and rarely seen on the chopping block.

 

Prices are strong, demand is hard but the shift to quality is driven by punters looking to drink better and less.

 

Auction catalogues are now burdened with cheapies that suit parties and BBQ?s. There are some serious bargains for the studious and the curious.

 

There are two wonderful rich mother loads to chip at.

 

There is lots of queer foreign stuff appearing in catalogues that have huge Parker points, monster retail tags and too sexy for their own good.

 

Do the Google and snap up bargains from Spain Greece and Portugal.

 

Same theme but more mainstream are the big ticket, lesser lights from France and Italy. 

 

Great bargains from Rhone, Burgundy and Bordeaux; Again do the research and look at the real value.

 

That $100 bottle of 3rd Growth Bordeaux from a strong back vintage might be retailing as a current vintage for $300.

 

Italy is a happy auction hunting ground. There are a handful of flash big Italian names.

 

Needless to say there are literally thousands of tiny super premium Italian wines that are available in minute quantities and very seen rarely in Australia.

 

The GFC has seen some fat and lazy old world stars pushing the classics towards a strong Oz Dollar.

 

Traditional Euro and US markets are still recovering. 

 

Look for big ticket recent vintages and do the study. Don?t expect this mini-bonanza  to last; if the Champagne market is a good indicator.

 

The slack in orders from 2008 /2009 that saw a flood of fab-Fizz wash our sun-burned shores is all but a hazy memory.

 

The cheeky boss of Taittinger crowed that Viagra was his only serious competitor with the US and China markets slated for sucking up all future production

 

Here are words from the trade press

 

Champagne's stiffest competition comes not from Prosecco, Cava or English sparkling wine ? but from Viagra, according to Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger.

Speaking at the Reuters Global Luxury Summit last week, the Taittinger chief executive also predicted that Champagne exports to China will outstrip the US within 15 years.

And he expects Champagne sales to rebound this year, aided by the weaker Euro, restocking in the supply chain and surging demand in emerging markets.

 

the other mother load is my favourite for fossicking. 

 

Simple formula, look at the big Oz wines names from the past that are either eating corporate humble pie having been taken over by a conglomerate.

 

Easy to forget that Redmans Cabernet Sauvigon now sitting at retail in $ mid-teens was the toast of the industry thirty years ago with prices rivalling Grange Hermitage and well above Henschke Hill of Grace.

 

Stonyfell Metalla is another case in point, there are others.

 

Look at the bottles in good condition with a particular focus on the strong vintages like 1976, 1982, 1986 1990.

 

The big secret, look for wine brands that are from big producers that are no longer in production.

 

Lindemans, Hardy, Seppelt and to a lesser degree Penfolds produced wine brands  that at no more.

 

Some were special limited releases, some just stopped.

 

The fickle market has no confidence in Seppelt Dorrien/  Dromberg, Lindemans Hunter Bin wines that changed every year and the strange and wonderful Hardys experiments and show releases.

 

Rosemount made some wonderful wines that just fell into limbo when the brand was trashed after the last mega brand marriage / bust up/ divorce.

 

Mountain Blue and Balmoral are two lost waifs well worth adopting.

 

What to do with old whites?  This curly subject get a lot of attention and emotion and sadly precious little common sense.

 

Sterling customers are in touch with the agony and the ecstasy of the aged white.

 

This is a subject that demands its own space and some significant analysis.

 

Simple starter. Sad facts of life, super tweaked, chardonnays can oxidise prematurely and be very disappointing.

 

Colour is the key. Not all fifteen to twenty year old Chardonnays are past it. Some are stunning and wonderful, sadly time and tide is hard on whites under corks. 

 

Expect colour development. Less is better but the trick is to look for brown. Not easy when looking through coloured glass.

 

Sterling works hard at identifying all whites that are tinged with brown. If it is hard to pick, we will catalogue as ?dark Colour?

 

This not a sentence but a serious warning that the odds are against this bottle drinking as fresh and clean.

 

Occasionally we will catalogue a white as ?doubtful condition? This is HIGH HIGH risk stuff, likely clearly brown through the glass.

 

Think of these as curios that might make a powerful marinade to put extra spine into you coq a vin

 

Last word, by way as a tease before I fully embrace the subject.

 

Petaluma have had more than their fair share of disappointing Chardonnays.

 

1996 and 1997 were ravished by bottle / closure problems.

 

Recently Sterling catalogued 1978 Petaluma Chardonnay (with fruit from Cowra in NSW?) WOW, beautiful crisp and seriously delicate and persistent. This un-worldly paradox kept on pleasing and hung together in the bottle for more than two days! Impossible? That?s the story; plenty of disappointments, some unforgettable surprises reward patience

June 2010