What is the most egregious wine pricing you have seen?

[tarija]

The above is good news - we need to keep funneling these wines that direction, diverting their attention for as long as possible from the good stuff.

[asajoseph]

What is the Longview Estate Chardonnay like? Maybe one should stock up in anticipation of a shift in palate preference.

May be a better bet to look for kiwi wineries that might be on the market, who make slightly dubious off dry wine...

[JamieBahrain]

I can beat you all with NZ's most expensive wine at $1,206 a bottle. Behold Longview Estate White Diamond

Extraordinary! One to watch the sunset from a rental on Queenstown Hill- mainland rich are paying 30,000 NZD a night. NZ is a haven for the mega wealthy.

[Mahmoud Ali]

What is the Longview Estate Chardonnay like? Maybe one should stock up in anticipation of a shift in palate preference.

May be a better bet to look for kiwi wineries that might be on the market, who make slightly dubious off dry wine...

Oh, good point!

The above is good news - we need to keep funneling these wines that direction, diverting their attention for as long as possible from the good stuff.

Yes indeed.

Mahmoud.

[Craig(NZ)]

What is the Longview Estate Chardonnay like? Maybe one should stock up in anticipation of a shift in palate preference.

May be a better bet to look for kiwi wineries that might be on the market, who make slightly dubious off dry wine...

Oh, good point!

The above is good news - we need to keep funneling these wines that direction, diverting their attention for as long as possible from the good stuff.

Yes indeed.

Mahmoud.

Hey it's the best sweet wine in the world. The website told me so.

[felixp21]

I can beat you all with NZ's most expensive wine at $1,206 a bottle. Behold Longview Estate White Diamond

Extraordinary! One to watch the sunset from a rental on Queenstown Hill- mainland rich are paying 30,000 NZD a night. NZ is a haven for the mega wealthy.

nah mate, NZ is the haven for the Chinese midi-wealthy, you know, the ones worth USD $40-50 million.
the mega wealthy (billionaires, of which there are thousands upon thousands) make the Cote d'Azure their home... ask the French, virtually no French ownership in Cap d'Antibes any more, all Chinese. It is scary what is happening to France, 100x worse than Australia.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Craig(NZ),

This Longview anomaly aside, what is the most expensive wine in New Zealand?

Cheers ............... Mahmoud.

[Craig(NZ)]

Craig(NZ),

This Longview anomaly aside, what is the most expensive wine in New Zealand?

Cheers ............... Mahmoud.

The most expensive single bottle I have ever seen for sale retail was a bottle of Destiny Bay Magna Praemia (forget what vintage) signed by the then Prime Minister John Key for $100,000 at Duty Free. Guarantee that didn't sell. A normal unsigned bottle is $385 ($575 at Glengarry!). I think that is the most expensive wine of reasonable production in NZ

Providence Vineyards in Matakana does a few single barrel wines that seem to be duty free exclusive which are $600-$700.

[url]https://www.theloopdutyfree.co.nz/search?__R ... providence[/url]

Old timers Mazurans sell vintage ports right back into the 1940's. The older ones are very expensive, 1990's back $200 and over but you can argue of course these are back vintages. Wineries such as Stonyridge, Puriri Hills and no doubt a good few others sell back vintages at the cellar door for over $200

[url]https://www.glengarrywines.co.nz/items/web10 ... 1QQAvD_BwE[/url]

I think there are probably at a guess ten NZ latest release wines over the $200 a bottle mark now. Depends how you define the price...best retail, average retail, cellar door, EP etc. Church Road Tom x2, Trinity Hill Tawny, Bell Hill Pinot Noir, Martinborough Vineyards Marie Zelie, Puriri Hills Pope is knocking on the door (unless you ae in VIP club), Peregrine Pinnacle Pinot Noir ditto, Providence x3 (from their normal range), Stonyridge Larose (unless you are in VIP club), Destiny Bay x2 (cheaper in their napa styled club).......

Another couple of years and this will probably double. There are quite a few over the $150 mark now. Looking at Australia, we will only follow. I would suggest Coleraine has plans to get there, Esk Terraces, maybe Craggy Le Sol and Trinity Homage...but this leads to a new thread? Predicted price bolters

[Mahmoud Ali]

Thanks Craig,

I don't have many New Zealand wines in the cellar but the most expensive that I do have is the Stonyridge Larose followed by the Te Mata Coleraine. I had no idea that there were so many others prices so much higher.

[Craig(NZ)]

the local wine shop in Futian (inner suburb of Shenzhen) gets an allocation of 3 dozen of this rubbish every year. He has a waiting list in the hundreds wanting to get a bottle. I remember it being "only" 4000 RMB (AUD $800), so maybe it has increased further in price?

I wouldn't go as far as saying it is "rubbish". I have enjoyed several bottles of it over the years. It is very unique and evocative, but I wouldn't call it "fine wine". it was quite cult up in Whangarei among the bogan girls and their mothers and also among the chinese population in Auckland. I had a friend whose parents cellared it until it was as brown as tea...no idea

All you need is a rich sucker to make some good coin, and obviously these guys are not completely stupid, they have picked the right market.

Each to their own. I am not queueing

As an aside apparently (according to Facebook) if you turn up to the cellar door you used to be able to buy it for $270. That was a long time ago, so who knows if you still can or not (or what the price is now)

[Craig(NZ)]

Oh they are all coming out of the wood work now

Mudbrick Velvet $750. I think last time I visited it was $150, so some inflation it seems

[url]https://www.mudbrick.co.nz/product/velvet-20 ... ke-island/[/url]

The new vintage of Clearview Basket Press I see is listed at $195 too

[michel]

Oh they are all coming out of the wood work now

Mudbrick Velvet $750. I think last time I visited it was $150, so some inflation it seems

[url]https://www.mudbrick.co.nz/product/velvet-20 ... ke-island/[/url]

The new vintage of Clearview Basket Press I see is listed at $195 too

Mudbrick says out of stock on the website
We are still safe

[Wayno]

Ha... website also declares it as “weight 1kg”, assuming weight is an issue worth noting... big heavy bottle to reinforce the fact it’s $750. Excessive and ludicrous.

Oh they are all coming out of the wood work now

Mudbrick Velvet $750. I think last time I visited it was $150, so some inflation it seems

[url]https://www.mudbrick.co.nz/product/velvet-20 ... ke-island/[/url]

The new vintage of Clearview Basket Press I see is listed at $195 too

Mudbrick says out of stock on the website
We are still safe

[rooman]

Thanks Craig,

I don't have many New Zealand wines in the cellar but the most expensive that I do have is the Stonyridge Larose followed by the Te Mata Coleraine. I had no idea that there were so many others prices so much higher.

I have been a member of the Stonyridge VIP club on and off for a couple of decades now, thou recently with skiing and school fees I am back off again. In fairness to the Larose however, I believe it is probably the best bordeaux blend made in Australasia. I have put it up against the likes of Mt Mary and Moss Wood in the past and believe it normally comes out ahead. So by local pricing it is high but up against any sort of Left Bank growth wine from Bordeaux, it is reasonably priced. If you put it up against a Grand-Puy-Lacoste it is bloody great value.

Mark

[JamieBahrain]

nah mate, NZ is the haven for the Chinese midi-wealthy, you know, the ones worth USD $40-50 million.
the mega wealthy (billionaires, of which there are thousands upon thousands) make the Cote d'Azure their home... ask the French, virtually no French ownership in Cap d'Antibes any more, all Chinese. It is scary what is happening to France, 100x worse than Australia.

I'd be worried the French would take it back. Plenty of uber-wealth slinking into NZ Felix. The paranoid, end of the worlders - or perhaps its mainland extradition laws for the inevitable, crossing the Party type of corruption. And they are the billionaires- Jack Ma etc were in the Queenstown market.

It's interesting to here from Craig on all this. We can scoff but I guess the silliness is inevitable over NZ way too.

Meanwhile, Coleraine 1998 from a reported professional cellar went for $50 at a recent Wickman's auction. Now that's a egregious pricing in itself! What wonderful wine.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Meanwhile, Coleraine 1998 from a reported professional cellar went for $50 at a recent Wickman's auction. Now that's a egregious pricing in itself! What wonderful wine.

On that note, in taking egregious in the opposite sense, for me it's a couple of bottles of 2009 Coleraine for $20 a bottle only a couple of years ago.

Mahmoud.

[Craig(NZ)]

Meanwhile, Coleraine 1998 from a reported professional cellar went for $50 at a recent Wickman's auction. Now that's a egregious pricing in itself! What wonderful wine.

On that note, in taking egregious in the opposite sense, for me it's a couple of bottles of 2009 Coleraine for $20 a bottle only a couple of years ago.

Mahmoud.

That's great buying. 2009 is a stunning vintage of Coleraine. A big, firm, classical wine that I find tremendous! Great buying. I picked up some 2010 Coleraine for $37 once and I thought that was great buying. 2009 though better vintage and better price for you

[Mahmoud Ali]

Thanks Craig, the interesting thing is that in a separate bin was a single bottle of the same vintage of Awatea, also for the same price. Despite the worse QPR (ha, ha, just kidding) I bought that one as well. Te Mata says enjoyment of the Awatea is up to 10 years from the vintage and for the Coleraine it is up to 15 years from the vintage. Of course, as people on this forum may have noticed, I don't take winemaker estimates for the average consumer to heart.

By the way, my next New Zealand wine on the chopping block is one where the the back label states "This wine will respond favourably to several years of cellaring and may require decanting." Don't know what they mean by "several" but it is a 2000 Thornbury Merlot, a Hawkebury wine made by Steve Bird and now 18 years old. I have very few straight merlots so this wine represents an expriment on two fronts.

Mahmoud.

[JamieBahrain]

Te Mata is one of those where the pricing must get easily mixed up ? Same thing in Malaysia recently, Awatea retailing at the bottom end of the range with Coleraine and Bullnose syrah higher. Not that they were a match for the local cuisine. Cheap Kiwi pinot being delightful.

In Beijing yesterday, Bowen Estate has broken through the Party's "go-slow" on Aussie wine. Excited to see cab and shiraz on the supermarkets locally- though won't be a supporter at $100 AUD a bottle! It's exported tax free so I'm guessing it's sold at no more than $15 AUD per bottle. $1 freight so there's a hefty mark-up even at high Chinese taxation.

[Mahmoud Ali]

With all due respect lots of wine can get mixed up if at least one name is in common. In my case, with the Te Matas, the Awatea and the Coleraine were in separate bins with separate tags. The Coleraine tag had the correct name and so did the Awatea. If there was a mix up I don't know what it was and I shouldn't care.

Another store in my town has the regular Tahbilk on the shelf but the tag reads "Tahbilk ESP" with the higher price of the Eric Stevens Purbrick. I've brought it to the attention of the staff but to no avail. Some poor sucker will pay over $50 for it and will no doubt find it an appealing wine. It has been several years since I pointed it out and the number of bottles has dwindled down to two. I expect several poor sods have been buying the wine.

Basically it's buyer beware, mistakes occur in both directions and those in the know should take advantage when they can.

Mahmoud.

[Ian S]

Another store in my town has the regular Tahbilk on the shelf but the tag reads "Tahbilk ESP" with the higher price of the Eric Stevens Purbrick. I've brought it to the attention of the staff but to no avail. Some poor sucker will pay over $50 for it and will no doubt find it an appealing wine. It has been several years since I pointed it out and the number of bottles has dwindled down to two. I expect several poor sods have been buying the wine.

This can be a delicate situation, and it's rarely black and white with ethics. However on the basis of the Tahbilk tagged as Tahbilk ESP that they won't remedy, there could be no ethical dilemma if you saw a different wine mis-priced too low in that same shop. I think we'd all be exhorting you to 'back the truck up'. Likewise reporting them to the local equivalent of trading standards.

If I saw a mix up (Coleraine cheaper than Awatea) I think I'd flag it to them, just as I always call it out if someone gives me too much change. i.e. where there is an obvious and undeniable error. Once with some riedel champagne glasses (IIRC the cheaper Ouvertures), a large department store stuck with their listed price that would have been a bargain per stem, but they rang it through as a box of 4. I queried it, but they saw no error. It was in the clearance items and hence perhaps they just wanted shot of them, but GBP1 per stem really did feel like a mistake. Conversely when I bought a dozen Best's FHT, from a large online operation, the price was good but maybe only 10-20% cheaper than I'd seen, so it just looked like the sort of competitive price that it's common to find. Only when they delivered a case of 6 did their mistake reveal itself. Fair play to them, they did honour the deal, and on that occasion I stood my ground as I wouldn't have bought at double the price, nor indeed much more than I paid.

[JamieBahrain]

There's been a few explosive threads over the years on the ethics of taking advantage of incorrect pricing versus honesty.

[RogerPike]

There's been a few explosive threads over the years on the ethics of taking advantage of incorrect pricing versus honesty.

I remember one of those!

No regrets.

Roger

[Mahmoud Ali]

Another store in my town has the regular Tahbilk on the shelf but the tag reads "Tahbilk ESP" with the higher price of the Eric Stevens Purbrick. I've brought it to the attention of the staff but to no avail. Some poor sucker will pay over $50 for it and will no doubt find it an appealing wine. It has been several years since I pointed it out and the number of bottles has dwindled down to two. I expect several poor sods have been buying the wine.

This can be a delicate situation, and it's rarely black and white with ethics. However on the basis of the Tahbilk tagged as Tahbilk ESP that they won't remedy, there could be no ethical dilemma if you saw a different wine mis-priced too low in that same shop. I think we'd all be exhorting you to 'back the truck up'. Likewise reporting them to the local equivalent of trading standards.

Ian, I have another story along those lines. A number of years ago a wine shop had a bottle of 1999 Warre's LBV with a price tag of C$118 (£68/A$122 at today's exchange). Of course no LBV is worth that much so I was sure it was an error. I took the bottle to the till and asked for a price check. The clerk asked me if there wasn't a price tag on the shelf to which I admitted there was and by way of explanation said that there was probably a pricing error because an LBV should be more like thirty dollars and not a hundred. He rang it through the till and it was C$118. He then looked at me and said "Do you want it or not?" I felt that was rather brusque but politely declined and put the bottle back. It was then that I saw that there wasn't a price tag for the 2000 Noval, a vintage port. So I went back to the till with a bottle and said "This bottle hasn't got a price tag, how much is it?" He scanned it and said "C$34" (£20/A35), to whiich I said "That's more reasonable, I'll take it, and maybe one more."

If I saw a mix up (Coleraine cheaper than Awatea) I think I'd flag it to them, just as I always call it out if someone gives me too much change. i.e. where there is an obvious and undeniable error. Once with some riedel champagne glasses (IIRC the cheaper Ouvertures), a large department store stuck with their listed price that would have been a bargain per stem, but they rang it through as a box of 4. I queried it, but they saw no error. It was in the clearance items and hence perhaps they just wanted shot of them, but GBP1 per stem really did feel like a mistake. Conversely when I bought a dozen Best's FHT, from a large online operation, the price was good but maybe only 10-20% cheaper than I'd seen, so it just looked like the sort of competitive price that it's common to find. Only when they delivered a case of 6 did their mistake reveal itself. Fair play to them, they did honour the deal, and on that occasion I stood my ground as I wouldn't have bought at double the price, nor indeed much more than I paid.

There was no mixup with the Te Matas. Each wine was in a separate slot with price tags that had the correct name of the wine. No mix up. Why they reduced the price of the Coleraine more than the Awatea I have no idea. I drove to this store on a cold winter night specifically because a friend of mine told me they had a good sale on a bunch of wines and that I might be interested in some of the less expensive Chiantis. Well, never mind the cheap Chianti, you can imagine my surprise when I saw the Coleraine and the Awatea on sale for C$20, and some Stonyridge Larose reduced from C$120 to C$50!!! When I was at cellar door a single glass of Stonyridge Larose cost NZ$27.

The story didn't end there. After making up a case of wine and a several hundred dollar bill I took the carton out to the car. Strangely, the car key had separated from the key chain in my pocket. It was a cold winter evening and with gloved hand I inserted the solitary key in the hatchback and put in my newly found treasure. When I went to the car door the key was no longer in my hand. Oh, Oh. I checked the back of the car and there was no key, neither in the keyhole nor in the snow on the ground. My worst fear was confirmed. With key in hand I had set the carton of wine in the carpeted trunk and did not feel or hear the key slip out from between my fingers. The key was now in the locked car. I went back into the store, told them what had happened and asked if I could use the phone to call home so that my wife could get a taxi and bring the spare set of keys. As I was explaing to her over the phone where to come the staff told me there was a fast food joint across the parking lot where she could meet me. Imagine my surprise. The store was empty on this cold wintery night, I had just spent several hundred dollars in their store, my car is just outside their store, and they wanted me to wait somewhere where I hadn't bought anything. I was flabergasted, but said nothing, politely thanked them for the use of the phone, and waited outside in the cold parking lot for about 20 minutes, in full view of the staff through the plate glass windows.

The taxi driver was friendly, and had a nice chuckle at my expense having heard the full story on the taxi ride.

[swirler]

Tyrrell's Museum Release 160th Anniversary Vat 1 Semillon 2005 $179.

I know it's a top wine and storage costs money, but that's about 4 times release price, maybe more.

[michel]

Tyrrell's Museum Release 160th Anniversary Vat 1 Semillon 2005 $179.

I know it's a top wine and storage costs money, but that's about 4 times release price, maybe more.

I saw that as well

[Matt@5453]

probably the best topic for this one:

"The 40 Year Old Tawny sells for $600 a bottle with the vast majority sold in China.

“You can have all the raw ingredients sitting there but its how it’s blended together that’s the skill,” Wyld says.

“It’s blended more to the Chinese tastes – China is a massive market for cognac so the sorts of taste cues you get from expensive cognac are the sort of things they’re looking for in their fortifieds.”


[url]https://indaily.com.au/eat-drink-explore/win ... the-world/[/url]

[phillisc]

probably the best topic for this one:

"The 40 Year Old Tawny sells for $600 a bottle with the vast majority sold in China.

“You can have all the raw ingredients sitting there but its how it’s blended together that’s the skill,” Wyld says.

“It’s blended more to the Chinese tastes – China is a massive market for cognac so the sorts of taste cues you get from expensive cognac are the sort of things they’re looking for in their fortifieds.”


[url]https://indaily.com.au/eat-drink-explore/win ... the-world/[/url]

Yeah...one dickhead born every minute.
Cheers
Craig

[JamieBahrain]

What a lucky country. We can export 375ml of wine for the same price we export 10 ton of iron ore. Well done!

[Ozzie W]

A joint venture between Balnaves and Redman to produce the most expensive wine to ever come out of Coonawarra.

2016 William Wilson Shiraz Cabernet @ $300