The Auswine Forum

I note that someone just paid AU $50,784 ($44160 + $6624 buyers premium) for a signed immaculate bottle of Grange 1951 (red wine clinic 2010). Wonder if it'll ever actually get opened and enjoyed......

One bottle for 50 thousand dollars. Is that close to a record for an Aussie wine??



Cheers
Tim

The most I've ever paid for a bottle of wine is around $320 for the 1999 Grange when it was being "cleared" up at a local retailer some years back. I often think I shouldn't have, but being a bit of a collector, the price seemed good at the time. I guess it's a decent enough vintage, so hopefully I'm still around to enjoy them in some years time.
Next most spent was on some magnums of Best's Thomson Family Shiraz. One other expensive one is the Vincent Paris "Geynale" (Cornas) which should come into it's drinking window some time after those Granges are long gone.
For $50,000 you'd build a schmicko cellar and probably have money left over to put some decent wines in it, wouldn't you !?

I could buy a 1000 bottles of Rockford for that.

In what I now consider to be a moment of madness, I lashed out $350 on a 2002 Grange. At the time it was a good price but I am like Dave vino in that I convert that to 7 bottles of Basket Press. As good as the Grange will no doubt be, I'd rather the 7 bottles of BP. I have also bought a couple of Greenock Creek Roennfeldt Roads as well at about $160 a bottle.

I guess it is all comparable to what you earn and can afford. As I have become more educated in all matters wine, I would like to think I have become a lot smarter in what I buy. With the current state of the wine market, there is just so much value in the sub $50 bracket to not make it worthwhile buying the big dollar wines. I wish I had discovered wine before I had kids though. I might well have gone to town!

TiggerK wrote:I note that someone just paid AU $50,784 ($44160 + $6624 buyers premium) for a signed immaculate bottle of Grange 1951 (red wine clinic 2010). Wonder if it'll ever actually get opened and enjoyed......

One bottle for 50 thousand dollars. Is that close to a record for an Aussie wine??

Cheers
Tim

I beleive the record was 50k plus commission set by Oddbins in 2008. Thats for an individual bottle.

For owning a piece of Australian history that you can call your own; priceless.

In another 'moment of madness' via internet years ago bought 2 x '96 Grange and a '92 HOG.

Came to around the $1200 mark from memory.

The 2 Grange are for my children's weddings in years to come and the HOG has gone

ross

The most I paid was $220 for a Bin 707 magnum ('93) which I bought from auction in Perth with some vague idea it was more valuable on the east coast. At any rate it still sits in my cellar. Penfolds ROP claims the '93 707 is a fine wine replete with "composty aromas"... my favourite! Also recently paid $110 for a Moss Wood '96 off of Ebay which is ear-marked for this xmas day.

Normally I struggle to justify going past the $50-60/mark given the quality of Aussie wines at least available at or below that level (although Ill go to a restaurant and pay $100 - go figure).

For myself I rarely go much past the $50 mark and usually considerably lower. However, I did once buy a half bottle of Yquem 1967 for my wife's birthday, which cost a pretty packet, I can tell you. Let's just say a few hundred and leave it at that!

Cheers

Dave

Grange is the most expensive. I have 7 bottles but they were purchased when I was a little richer. Now I stay under $100 as a rule with most in the sub $30.

My most expensive purchase was quite a few years ago, a 1980 d'Yquem for about $100.

As for the most expensive Australian wine, it's probably the 2004 Dead Arm, in hindsight a bit too much at $50.

Mahmoud.

I've topped $100 on a smattering of occasions though never by much and, oddly enough, more often when I was even less knowledgeable (ie when price was subconsciously helping guide my quality judgements). I'm absolutely certain I'll enjoy the Clonakillas I paid $75 for and the $45 Voyagers and $50 Ata Rangis significantly more than the Two Hands I got for $100+.

Restaurants are a bit of a different story. Personal best was I believe $350 for a 96 Moss Wood, although that was part of a deal whereby if you spent $100+ per head on wine you didn't pay for your food. The wine, incidentally, was phenomenal.

Sadly, I've topped $100 on hundreds of occasions. (In fact typing it makes it seem quite shameful actually) I wish I could control myself....

£120 a few years ago; by accident.

I'd placed a proxy bid at auction for what I thought was a mixed case of 12 lesser mature Bordeaux. Having written the number down incorrectly, I ended up purchasing a different lot consisting of only 2 bottles instead.

The two bottles turned out to be Chateau Palmer 1989; so not all bad.

However, I would never have knowingly have spent so much on a single bottle.

Think a 750ml bottle of 1997 Ch Yquem was my worst offense at 500 NZ Paso. These days though I spend a lot less. I think this year I have only bought one 750ml bottle of wine over $100 and that was a 1994 Stonyridge Larose for $120 which is a forgivable sin.

**EDIT** Oh and four bottles of 2008 Puriri Hills Pope. My memory makes me more frugal than I really am hehe

A lone 96 Grange on release at @$250. I was single & childless then...
But I have one mental barrier at $50, and a very much firmer one at $100.

At $50k for a 51 Grange, the problem is that you're silly not to drink it (what's the point in owning it?) but it'll almost certainly be a disappointment.
Now, I gather the '53 is still capable of the 'wow' factor as a drink, and you could probably get two of them for that price...
cheers,
GG

GraemeG wrote:A lone 96 Grange on release at @$250. I was single & childless then...
But I have one mental barrier at $50, and a very much firmer one at $100.

At $50k for a 51 Grange, the problem is that you're silly not to drink it (what's the point in owning it?) but it'll almost certainly be a disappointment.
Now, I gather the '53 is still capable of the 'wow' factor as a drink, and you could probably get two of them for that price...
cheers,
GG

Good point Graham.
Alternatively, you could get 10 bottles of 1962 PENFOLDS Bin 60A Coonawarra Cabernet-Barossa Valley Shiraz. Not that I've had it, but arguably one of the best wines ever made in Australia. Langton's auction prices are between $3800-4800. A Bargain

rens wrote:

GraemeG wrote:A lone 96 Grange on release at @$250. I was single & childless then...
But I have one mental barrier at $50, and a very much firmer one at $100.

At $50k for a 51 Grange, the problem is that you're silly not to drink it (what's the point in owning it?) but it'll almost certainly be a disappointment.
Now, I gather the '53 is still capable of the 'wow' factor as a drink, and you could probably get two of them for that price...
cheers,
GG

Good point Graham.
Alternatively, you could get 10 bottles of 1962 PENFOLDS Bin 60A Coonawarra Cabernet-Barossa Valley Shiraz. Not that I've had it, but arguably one of the best wines ever made in Australia. Langton's auction prices are between $3800-4800. A Bargain

One of my customers (not a forumite) just purchased two of the 1962 60a's for the all up bargain price of 5k - he wanted them for his mums 50th next year - I wish my kids were as thoughtful as that

At our anniversary dinner just recently, we drank four wines I'd paid over $500 each for. Interestingly only one was a candidate for WOTN.

Guess I'm in the minority here (other than Mike) but I have regularly been over the $100 mark although I'm trying to spend a lot less now and keeping it under $50 most of the time. I do feel like I've got a cellar full of wines that demand an occasion rather than just being able to enjoy anything on any night.

I bought a new notebook PC recently and my thinking was it was a bargain as it was less than what I'd normally spend on a case of wine.

$120 on a Penfolds Bin 90A on release. Money well spent. At the other end sold it's older brother the1962 Bin 60A for $1,000 just before it was ranked number 7 in the all time world's best wine list. Now its trading around $3,500+. At least it went to a good home where it was consumed.

Carl

I got a bottle of '98 Krug on credit card points a few years back, which had an equivalent value of ~$550, but otherwise not more than about $80 on a bottle of fancy Chilean Carmenere

Haven't ever gone over $200, but seem to increasingly be creeping over the NZD 100 (or AUD 75 ... ) mark -- having recently done a bit of enhancement on the Access database I use as a cellar log, I can see that I've gone over $100 on 10 purchases this year (a few of those for multiple bottles), 3 of which were magnums, vs 2 last year (though my '09 Bordeaux purchases aren't there yet) & 3 in the prior year.

On a quick browse in a Singapore wineshop last week (in the mall below Marina Bay Sands), spotted a 1990 DRC Romanee Conti for Sing 33k -- say AUD 25k. More generally, this place had the most impressive line-up I've ever seen -- 10-15 bottle verticals of all the 1st growths etc etc -- and all at pretty full looking prices.

Cheers
Peter

Sadly I'm another who has purchased a lot over $100 - a penchant for high pradikat German wines and also Burgundy will do that to you. However too many failures - so a bit more judicious with the big dollar purchases these days. The GFC is a good catalyst for that type of thinking too...

I've spent >$100 on a fair few occasions particularly with good year first growths and Granges. Although I've spent $350 for particular bottles of Grange, the $120 that I spent on a 1955 in 1983 would be equivalent to about $1500 today. At the same time I spent $160 x 2 on 2 bottles of 1966 Chateau Haut Brion and that would be around $1800 on my reckoning with what wages were around then.

Have done the $230-250 mark a few times - 1995 Pol Cuvee Winston, 1982 Ch Margaux (well, actually my ex paid that, after being fined by the French courts - yes, a story for another day). More recently the $200-250 mark but for Magnums of Tahbilk 1860s Vine Shiraz, some Clarendon Hills Liandra Shiraz which I hope the kids enjoy when they are 18. Also quite a few recently in the $100-150 mark for good 2eme-4eme Bordeaux from '02, '05, a few en primeur '09s and '10s. Oh and remembering now about the $320 mark I think it was for an '82 Ch Pichon (Comtesse) - can't spell the full name . Conversely, also picked up some '89 Grange for $55 just before the '90 was released - no one could give the 89 away, 'cause everyone was waiting for the 90. Sadly, they were consumed far too early - again thanks to the ex, so that '82 Margaux was just payback

Daz67

bacchaebabe wrote:I do feel like I've got a cellar full of wines that demand an occasion rather than just being able to enjoy anything on any night.

Indeed. It's awkward to confess "I know we have 500 bottles, but we've got nothing to drink."

Hey - I saw your TV moment. I expect Qantas have slung you big money now?
cheers,
GG

$144 pb for 1966 WCE BL....finally I have tracked down 3 of these beauties.
Just got to hope that at least 1 of the 3 is a cracker.
Really bloody stupid purchase I know but after pestering vitrually everyone in Australia..I have them
They would have been about $1 on release.

Still a 55 Michael that I purchased in 1984 for $180 (could buy 8 bottles of current release grange at the time, 79 vintage) my most ever expensive puchase, even more than Granges from the 60s, was a moment of madness, but the most subliminal experience.....easily the best shiraz to pass my lips, even more so as a 30 year old bottle.
It was like yesterday worth $3500 now...but who cares

Craig

Relatively 1991 Grange on release is my most expensive purchase over $100 but I don't exactly remember what in 1995.
Actual $ paid would probably be a bottle of Krug GC c$240 in 2009
Champagne I'll pay $40-50 at the moment, birth year magnums for the kids had a few in the $100 to $200 area.
Biggest challenge at the moment is the number of bargains around and the lack of cash flow to take advantage

GraemeG wrote:

bacchaebabe wrote:I do feel like I've got a cellar full of wines that demand an occasion rather than just being able to enjoy anything on any night.

Indeed. It's awkward to confess "I know we have 500 bottles, but we've got nothing to drink."

Hey - I saw your TV moment. I expect Qantas have slung you big money now?
cheers,
GG

LOL. Funny who saw that. All the late night SBS watchers. I didn't even know what channel it was for and it was screened as I was mid flight to Melbourne so even I didn't get to see it or organise to tape it. From what I heard, it was edited as I was on a long rant.

$320 Grange 1996

$320 Grange 1996 on release, courtesy of the Winepros/Vintage Cellars rip-off connection at the time