Anecdotes - finding rare wine in unusual places ?

[markg]

Hey chaps,

Does anybody have any anecdotes (personal or heard from a friend) of finding rare or unusual wines in unexpected circumstances ?

ie. a common theme; knocking down Grandfathers house to build a new one and finding a bottle of 1951 Grange stashed under the floorboards

[orpheus]

No. I do remember finding a bottle of 1990 Grange in about 1998 in a bottle shop on Waiheke Island for $90NZ though.

I sometimes have some surprises in my cellar too, but that is more to do with memory loss, possibly alcohol related.

[daver6]

I can't quite compete with that price, but recently in New York and a steak house found '98 Grange on the wine list for US$200. We couldn't resist

[Loztralia]

None of my own, but an old friend in London swears blind that he was on a drinking session with another mate of his, who happens to be a wine merchant, and at some point in mid-afternoon they stopped at a newsagent to buy cigarettes and found four magnums of vintage Bollinger (year unknown but apparently an acceptable one) gathering dust behind the counter. Price 25 quid each. His mate bought the lot of course.

[Craig(NZ)]

Saw a bottle of 82 cheval blanc in a shop in arrowtown for $600 a couple of years ago being sold on behalf after a marriage split ex a proper cellar where it had been since release (so the story goes). I was so close to buying it as i knew it was a "bargain" but.....i didn't. I don't have many occassions for drinking that much cash

[Jay60A]

Leoville Poyferre 1996 in my local indian mini-market at ten pounds. Literally 3 minutes away.

I snapped up the last 4 bottles. This was only a year or two back ... they couldn't get any more alas.

[monghead]

Saw a bottle of 82 cheval blanc in a shop in arrowtown for $600 a couple of years ago being sold on behalf after a marriage split ex a proper cellar where it had been since release (so the story goes). I was so close to buying it as i knew it was a "bargain" but.....i didn't. I don't have many occassions for drinking that much cash

Wow, could have bought it and auctioned off.

Profit would have purchased quite a few SRLs, etc...

Monghead.

[monghead]

Leoville Poyferre 1996 in my local indian mini-market at ten pounds. Literally 3 minutes away.

I snapped up the last 4 bottles. This was only a year or two back ... they couldn't get any more alas.

I can't beat the price, but I think I did ok with my 9x '96 Leoville Poyferres. At a local VC some 7-8 years ago for just under $50AUD.

Monghead.

[Craig(NZ)]

Saw a bottle of 82 cheval blanc in a shop in arrowtown for $600 a couple of years ago being sold on behalf after a marriage split ex a proper cellar where it had been since release (so the story goes). I was so close to buying it as i knew it was a "bargain" but.....i didn't. I don't have many occassions for drinking that much cash

Wow, could have bought it and auctioned off.

Profit would have purchased quite a few SRLs, etc...

Monghead.

yeah i could have i guess. from what i heard it was the last of quite a number of other bottles. if it was 82 mouton i would have bought. market for that type of wine is extremely small in nz though

[Partagas]

1998 Yattarna Chardonnay for $40 about 4 or 5 years ago (Woolies in Victoria chrissy day).
2001 Cullen Di Madeline $75 (Rotto bottle shop about 4 years ago)
1998 St Henri for $55 (first choice about 2 years ago)
1998 707 for $130 and had quite a few of them (Although I didnt buy any) at an off the track bottle shop on the way to Bunbury two weeks ago.

[Mandingo]

Grabbed 8 bottles of the 94 Jack Mann shortly after its release for $14 per bottle.

[rooman]

About 7 years ago, a group of us went to stay at a friend's farm down near Goulburn during winter. One night 6 of us headed off to small stone restaurant run by a Frenchman. It was set in an old water mill from the late 1800s and had one hat as I recall. A great rustic venue that did simple but excellent table d'hote food. $60 bought access to tables of fantastic food consisting of roasts and soaps and wonder home made bread. Wine was chosen by selecting bottles from an old rack next to the door. The owner simply handwrote the price on the bottles then added them all at the end of the evening.

Anyhow the evening we arrived, the owner told us he had purchased a whole selection of old wines from the cellar of a bottle shop in a neighbouring town that had gone out of business. Since he didn't know what was good and what was bad, he had written $10 on all bottles and you chose your bottle and took your luck. As I started to rumage through the bottles I found a dozen Penfolds Bin 7 1967. At the time I knew nothing about the wine other than it was from Penfold and was worth a punt for $10. As the levels ranged from top of the neck to bottom of the shoulder, we drank only the former and close to half a dozen were consumed in one seating. Every bottle was a gem, an amazing old wine. I have seen subsequent prices up near $700-$800.

[Wizz]

When I was first introduced to the world of fine wine in about 1991 - visiting a big liquor barn in my home town of Townsville and finding two bottles of 1979 Henriot Baron Phillipe de Rothschild champagne - a fairly rare super cuvee.

Jagging a 1955 Taylors VP on sold.com.au (ebay predecessor) for $70

[rooman]

Andrew, was the VP any good?

[Wizz]

Andrew, was the VP any good?

Fricken awesome. Volatile and strange at first, but we were stunned that even at that age and with no provenance, it still breathed up well with 2 hours or so in a decanter.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Speaking of Leovolle Poyferre, a couple of years ago I walked into a small rundown little store in Edmonton with almost nary a good wine and found a single bottle of 1976 Leoville Poyfere and a couple of other older Bordeaux wines. One bottle had a C$45 price tag and the others didn't have any tags. At the counter the owner said I could have them all for C$15 each. I walked out with a huge grin.

The Poyferre was delicious, exactly what a fine, well-aged Bordeaux should be. If you ever find a bottle you can ignore Parker's 75 point score, it's meaningless.

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

[Steve]

Wow, these are some good stories!

The best I've got is finding ~10 year old Petaluma riesling in the depths of Sarawak for $21-ish per bottle.

Oh, I did recently find a bottle of 2004 (I think) Kilikanoon Oracle for about $25 at some weird random back alley, two shelf wine shop in the depths of Tainan, Taiwan. Mmm...

[redwine]

Got some good bargains at auctions:

Got a Chris Ringland Three River Shiraz for about AUD 180. I was also able to buy various Grange starting at around AUD 195 (Vintage 1994), 1996 at 220 and up to 290 (Vintage 1982) or a magnum 1997 for about 650.--.

One other highlight was when I thought I buy 2 Dom Perignon 1963 (label on photo was not really clear) for together about AUD 350.-- but then got 2 bottles of the vintage 1961.

Cheers and happy drinking.

[Wayno]

2 1996 St Henri's for $25 at a Mt Gambier bottlo a few years back.

[daz]

Tahbilk 1860s Vines 97 for <$40 from the barn a few years back, think it was erroneously priced as the reserve. Lindemans museum release Limestone Ridge 1991 checked out at the price of a Cawarra.

daz

[Craig(NZ)]

Anyhow the evening we arrived, the owner told us he had purchased a whole selection of old wine from the cellar of a bottle shop in a neighbouring town that had gone out of business. Since he didn't know what was good and what was bad, he had written $10 on all bottles and you chose your bottle and took your luck. As I started to rumage through the bottles I found a dozen Penfolds Bin 7 1967. At the time I knew nothing about the wine other than it was from Penfold and was worth a punt for $10. As the levels ranged from top of the neck to bottom of the shoulder, we drank only the former and close to half a dozen were consumed in one seating. Every bottle was a gem, an amazing old wine. I have see subsequent prices up near $700-$800.

A few years ago a local booze shop had Penfolds Bin 747 from late 60's I think. It was worth nothing, stored like crap up near the flouro lights in the heat, but they had $700 odd buck on it. Funny!

[Mahmoud Ali]

Excellent buys there Wayne and Daz.....

I'm reminded about another purchase I made about a year ago. Heading to a pub after a run I spotted a wine store that I hadn't been to so decided to stop in afterwards. The store had not much in the way of interesting wines, just the usual selection of bulk and branded wines. However, in the corner of one shelf were bottles of 2004 Clape' Cornas, a syrah wine from the northern Rhone made by a traditionalist producer. There was a sale sign in front of the bottles but no price tag. At the counter the wine rang in at C$20. I didn't hesitate.

A few days later a friend of mine said "They're gone!". I replied "What's gone?"
He said "Those Cornas wines I was telling you about some month ago. They were regularly C$90 but were on sale for $$60 and I said we should buy some. Well they're gone, someone bought them all."

Naturally I had to give him a few bottles.

Opened a bottle a few months later and found it to be a lovely wine, still young of course but bold, structured, deep-fruited, and savoury. a wine for the cellar.

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

[orpheus]

Excellent buys there Wayne and Daz.....

I'm reminded about another purchase I made about a year ago. Heading to a pub after a run I spotted a wine store that I hadn't been to so decided to stop in afterwards. The store had not much in the way of interesting wines, just the usual selection of bulk and branded wines. However, in the corner of one shelf were bottles of 2004 Clape' Cornas, a syrah wine from the northern Rhone made by a traditionalist producer. There was a sale sign in front of the bottles but no price tag. At the counter the wine rang in at C$20. I didn't hesitate.

A few days later a friend of mine said "They're gone!". I replied "What's gone?"
He said "Those Cornas wines I was telling you about some month ago. They were regularly C$90 but were on sale for $$60 and I said we should buy some. Well they're gone, someone bought them all."

Naturally I had to give him a few bottles.

Opened a bottle a few months later and found it to be a lovely wine, still young of course but bold, structured, deep-fruited, and savoury. a wine for the cellar.

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

Mahmoud! I've been thinking about you during this thread, because of the strong criticism you copped when you raised a similar story before (I think it was you; some suggested you had an obligation to tell the store owner that they shouldn't sell you the wine for the price they had tagged it at; I didn't agree).

It seems that many have benefited from wines priced below expected price.

Cheers,
Orpheus.

[rens]

Excellent buys there Wayne and Daz.....

I'm reminded about another purchase I made about a year ago. Heading to a pub after a run I spotted a wine store that I hadn't been to so decided to stop in afterwards. The store had not much in the way of interesting wines, just the usual selection of bulk and branded wines. However, in the corner of one shelf were bottles of 2004 Clape' Cornas, a syrah wine from the northern Rhone made by a traditionalist producer. There was a sale sign in front of the bottles but no price tag. At the counter the wine rang in at C$20. I didn't hesitate.

A few days later a friend of mine said "They're gone!". I replied "What's gone?"
He said "Those Cornas wines I was telling you about some month ago. They were regularly C$90 but were on sale for $$60 and I said we should buy some. Well they're gone, someone bought them all."

Naturally I had to give him a few bottles.

Opened a bottle a few months later and found it to be a lovely wine, still young of course but bold, structured, deep-fruited, and savoury. a wine for the cellar.

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

Mahmoud! I've been thinking about you during this thread, because of the strong criticism you copped when you raised a similar story before (I think it was you; some suggested you had an obligation to tell the store owner that they shouldn't sell you the wine for the price they had tagged it at; I didn't agree).

It seems that many have benefited from wines priced below expected price.

Cheers,
Orpheus.

I agree with Orpheus.
Like in Rooman's account of the frenchman selling $600 wines for $10 a pop-The frenchman was happy to get $10 for the bottles. He was probably happier that he sold 6 of them in one night. To him they were only worth that much so if the seller is happy with the price and the buyer is too then I don't see an issue.
Similarly a family friend has a 1971 XY GTHO that he paid $60k for a few years back. To me it's a 40 year old car that I would not pay more than $5K for. My friend got riped off to the tune of $55K if you ask me. However you ask the fellow that offered him (and the offer was refused) $90K last month, he got a bargain.
Every now and then a decimal point goes in the wrong place or Bin707 is labelled bin389. In those cases I think you need to say something but other than that if the buyer and the seller walk away from the transaction without feeling they got screwed then there is no issue. Just my 2 cents.

[Craig(NZ)]

I have to agree with Mahmoud

It is no different than antiques buffs looking through antiques shop for something that is worth multiple times its asking price

It is the retailers job to price a product, it is the buyers job to "caveat emptor".

those brought up by mother theresa may feel otherwise and that is their right. If you wanna tell someone they are stupid and should be taking more money from you that is your call, just don't expect all to play your game. save your door knocking for saturday morning.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Yes Orpheus, that was me in that thread about the 2004 Langmeil Freedom.

I believe the reason so many people tske "advantage" of good deals is not because they are unscrupulous or cheats. The reason people find these so-called bargains is because of the type of market that exists in the wine world.

In my experience there are more reasons behind price anomalies than just pricing errors. Across borders and sometimes within cities and towns the price of wine can vary markedly. The reason behind this is the number of people between the wine maker and the consumer. For each wine there can be as many as three or four intermediaries, exporters, importers, wholesaler/distributors, and of course the retailer. In each case they have their own pricing policies based on supply, demand and their stocks.Let me give a few examples.

Some years ago, after my first visit to Australia I noticed that the Wynn's Black Label Cabernet was cheaper at home in Edmonton than in Australia. At Melbourne Duty Free the asking price was over A$20 while at home it was selling for under C$14! Meanwhile the Leasingham Bin 61 Shiraz that sold for less than A$20 in Australia was selling for over C$30 in Edmonton. How does one explain such peculiar discrepancies. Is it the supply or demand for the wine, the producer's decision to promote a wine overseas, or an importer's markup policy. Was Wynns trying to promote sales in Canada, did they have surplus stock, or was the imported of Leasingham just overcharging for a wine that had good reviews? I can't say but I know that in Edmonton I buy the Wynn's Black Label and never the Leasingham Bin 61.

In another instance of what I consider an importer ripoff was a wine called Tre Picos (or something like that). It was a very well received 90 pointer wine that was selling for US$10-12 in the United States. But in Edmonton, distributed by a company that had a reputation for stocking fine wines, the wine sold for over C$30. Somebody, and it wasn't the retailer, was taking advantage of the consumer.

On the other hand, wholesalers and distributors sometimes need to get rid of stock and will dump a product, sometimes as an exclusive to a single retailer. In one instance I know of a retailer who obtained from the distributor all of the Rozes 10 Year Old Tawny for C$25/six pack ($4/bottle). He went on to sell it for C$15 a bottle while other retailers in town still had it on their shelves for over C$30. No errors or ripoff at work here, just some of the internal workings of the wine trade. I believe that something similar was at work for me to find things like the Sacred Hill “Helmsman” for C$14 and the Churchill VP for C$35.

And then there is the retailer. Sure they make mistakes but sometimes I come across a retailer for whom I have no sympathy. Let me explain. Suppose you have a chain of stores who price the same bottle of wine differently across neighbourhoods. Is that fair, especially when the wine is from the same vintage and their wholesale cost identical? In one instance I recall them selling a bottle of Chateauneuf that ranged from C$42-45 in their chain but I saw in one of their stores a sign that read “Regular $55, Sale Priced $45, Save $10 No Limits”. That was clearly a con, leading some consumers to think thay were getting a deal but in fact were paying the highest price they charged for the same wine in any of their other stores. I don't know if it's my job to tell the manager but my guess is that it was a corporate decision. the manger of the store must have known that C$45 wasaregular markup and not a sale price.

Another time I found the same company charging C$55 for the Marchesi Antinori Chianti Riserv in just one of their stores. The finest wine store in Edmonton sold the same wine for about C$42(including GST) based on a C$34 wholesale price. Same wine, same vintage, same distributor, but, hugely different markup. When they put Antinori's Tignanello (a more expensive wine) in the same slot I wasn't going to say anything, I bought the wine.

So, in practice, when it comes to these types of retailers I have no sympathy. When they make a mistake I reckon it is payback time for all the customers they have been fleecing. Here is where I guess some people may think I am guilty of something.

One last thing. It has happened that a retailer has ordered a wine but, by mistake, has received a more expensive bottling from the wholesaler. In this case it is not the retailer who is losing but rather the wholesaler. If a customer, like me, were to tell the retailer that he has a better wine on the shelf that should be selling for more do you think they would contact the wholesaler and pay the difference or would they raise the price and pocket the difference. I've met retailers who have continued reordering a wine that was mis-priced at the wholesale level, therby selling a better wine at a bigger margin but at less than regular retail. In such cases the retailer and the customers are the winners but the wholesaler is the loser.

Sorry for the long post, hope I haven't bored everyone.

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

[Waiters Friend]

You certainly haven't bored me, Mahmoud, and I believe your observations are spot-on.

Swings and roundabouts is part of it, but it is also a smaller part of the supply and demand equation that applies throughout most of our purchases (not just wine).

If a bargain is there, consumers will take it, and there is always the 'caveat emptor' (buyer beware) provision. I've acquired some bargains, but this is probably balanced out by the times I didn't get what I thought I was getting.

Age and experience brings wisdom, however. A bar that I go to from time to time has 'Devils Lair Chardonnay' on the list for $37. From bitter experience (but only once) I've found it is the Devils Lair Fifth Leg Chardonnay (RRP around $15), and not the real thing (like Howard Park vs Madfish). I won't do it again, but will remain cognisant of the specials I have got from the times the industry was one step behind me.

Quid pro quo.

Cheers

Allan

[Craig(NZ)]

Yip

I once bought a 96 E+E Black Pepper for $40ish on clearance special at a supermarket here. Got home with the groceries and noticed on the till receipt thay had charged me the normal retail price ($60ish?). Anyway I went back on principle and demanded the difference refunded. Happens all the time not just with wine.

Don't make me cry crocodile tears for those stupid businesses. If they can rip you off they will. It is war out there!!!!

Now if it is a small business and you know the owner and you have a relationship then I will choose to comment on any bargains. I have bought a few wines before scanning down a shop list and picking out a good deal. I usually joke with them and tell them they should charge more and then buy it at the list price.

[reschsmooth]

Slightly tangential to the general theme of the thread, but related to Mahmoud's excellent post:

This year (or late last year, I forget now), a local chain store had a special on the Wynns Alex. I liked it and bought some but they didn't have stock. I was told it was due the following week. I received notification that it had come in, but there was a misunderstanding as the only Wynns that came in was a few bottles of John Riddock. Anyway, the girl behind the counter had no idea and, when I mentioned that I had been notified of the arrival of the Alex, she presented a couple of bottles of John Riddock and asked "is this them?" Whilst I could have said yes and taken the more expensive wine, I was honest and explained that, no, it wasn't. The reason was that I felt it was an honest mistake (notwithstanding my grievance with a wine shop employing uneducated sales staff).

If they had mispriced the Riddock on the shelf at the Alex price, it would have been a different story as I believe the advertised price is the price the retailer is willing to sell for. Who am I to tell them what the correct price should be given that they deviate from RRP anyway.

[n4sir]

Slightly tangential to the general theme of the thread...

I think the thread drifted well away from the original question a long time ago. It was about finding wines in unusual places, not about where/when people got their best bargain buy at XYZ wine outlet.