Today Penfolds announced a change to the annual release timings for its Bin Series and Icon and Luxury Collection wines. Currently released in March and May respectively, the new vintage fine wines will now be unveiled as one collection on Thursday 16th October 2014.
Spanning five vintages (2010 - 2014) The Penfolds Collection, as it will now be referred to, is led by the highly anticipated release of 2010 Grange. This is the 60th consecutive release of Penfolds flagship wine sourced from a critically-acclaimed vintage that saw South Australia benefit from arguably the best conditions seen within this decade. The 2010 vintage was particularly well suited to Penfolds winemaking philosophy and style.
They should at least put their emails through a spell check for starters.
Not sure what to make of it or what difference it really makes.
I would say a 5 year old release (which if released in 2014 at one year ahead of schedule) is what is killing them. Excise to be paid for a wine in bond for 5 years (each litre of ethanol that is), along with storage, then bottling then labeling etc are all fairly serious overheads. Perhaps the shadow of 2011 lives large and they can get onto the 2012s a bit quicker
I am more interested in the statement from Mr Clark today about a concerted effort in regaining a focus on the consumer!!
Well hello...have we finally woken up that selling wine should be all about the consumer
Makes sense to have most of the financial year to sell the Icon and Luxury Collection instead of jamming it into the last quarter. They might get a few more sales through Christmas as well.
Mr_Cervelo wrote:Makes sense to have most of the financial year to sell the Icon and Luxury Collection instead of jamming it into the last quarter. They might get a few more sales through Christmas as well.
That's true.
Seems strange though if this is a reaction to poor sales from the most recent release - why drip-feed the market with the 2010 St Henri? It was always going to be propping this release up - there's only so many suckers that will spend $750+ on bad vintage Grange. I've tried the 2009 twice now, once at the Dan murphy's showcase, where it was middle of the road compared to the 40 or so other wines, the other time in the Grange vs the Hunter blind tasting (while it isn't confirmed yet which one was Grange, it wasn't hard to pick out against the 3 Hunter wines) where it was probably the third best of the 4 wines. The 2008 was poured as well at the Grange vs the hunter tasting, and it blew all the other wines off the table though.
2010 Grange $785.00 2012 Yattarna $150.00 2012 Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon $350.00 2012 Bin 169 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon $350.00 2012 RWT Barossa Valley Shiraz $175.00 2012 Magill Estate Shiraz $130.00 2013 Reserve Bin A Adelaide Hills Chardonnay $100.00 2011 St Henri Shiraz $95.00 2012 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz $80.00 2012 Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon $80.00 2012 Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz $80.00 2012 Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz $40.00 2014 Bin 51 Eden Valley Riesling $30.00
Some quite outrageous prices here. Bin 28 now over $40 when it only seemed like a year or so ago you could get it around $20. St Henri going over $100 soon. Give me 10 2010 St Henri's for the price of 1 2010 Grange anyday. I can't believe how they just keep increasing the prices. They will be pricing them out of the consumers price range who drank their wine for years and years.
Actually Moira, respectfully, I don't think there's much fun to be had anywhere. Particularly for those who might be seriously contemplating a purchase, far far far deeper pockets than me, and good luck to them.
I was just looking at my Grange purchases in the last 20 years or so...1986 a few bottles at $77, 1990 a few bottles at $135, 1994 my last retail purchase, a few dollars under $200. So in 16 vintages has every cost related to TWE (staff, plant, production, vineyards, water etc.) gone up 400%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If it has then there are some inherent issues with the business.
Anyway, not for the love of wanting a few 2010 Granges, it won't affect me...a 6 pack at $4800...umm
Redwine&Rum wrote:This is off the Penfolds website:
Available Thursday 16th October RRP*
2010 Grange $785.00 2012 Yattarna $150.00 2012 Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon $350.00 2012 Bin 169 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon $350.00 2012 RWT Barossa Valley Shiraz $175.00 2012 Magill Estate Shiraz $130.00 2013 Reserve Bin A Adelaide Hills Chardonnay $100.00 2011 St Henri Shiraz $95.00 2012 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz $80.00 2012 Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon $80.00 2012 Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz $80.00 2012 Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz $40.00 2014 Bin 51 Eden Valley Riesling $30.00
Some quite outrageous prices here. Bin 28 now over $40 when it only seemed like a year or so ago you could get it around $20. St Henri going over $100 soon. Give me 10 2010 St Henri's for the price of 1 2010 Grange anyday. I can't believe how they just keep increasing the prices. They will be pricing them out of the consumers price range who drank their wine for years and years.
FWIW, these prices listed here (that is the full RRP ex Penfolds Cellar Door) are basically unchanged from the releases earlier this year - Bin 707 & Bin 169 were priced at $350 last year too. What the grocers end up selling them for could be a completely different story (as usual).
I have mixed feelings about this announcement to be honest - to an extent it was expected, significant sackings followed by a push to release the wines earlier to reduce the significant storage costs and boost short term profits, all the hallmarks of a big shot CEO bean counter. The end of September/start of October is shaping up to be a massive few weeks - wine clinics followed by the new Penfolds, all of them in one hit!
I am a little surprised to hear the (existing) Penfolds staff are all for it, but I guess after seeing quite a few of their mates being shown the door recently they didn't have any real choice - it does put a massive dent in the story that Grange needed to be held back five years before release to limit the type of flak Max Schubert copped early on when people first tried it. Then again, the days of a rebellious Winemaker doing things completely unknown to his superiors have been well and truly over at Penfolds for quite a while now.
Well for me with a limited budget and commitments (my choice) to Wendouree, Rockford and Noon all around this quarter that doesn't leave any room for Penfolds. So no Penfolds for me.
I should say that in previous years I get some 389 & St Henri and this often only lasts a few weeks at good prices. I think it important that each company find a niche in terms of release date and I am not sure this is a good time for many.
I fully expect the 389 will retail quite a bit lower than the aforementioned RRP. If so, I'll buy it given the vintage. And even if they whack up the price of St Henri for the following year (2012), I'm still a buyer if the juice is good. That said, I'll be skipping the 2011s.
Dan Murphy's discounting 2009 grange to $595 delivered. This was around $750 per bottle before that. Considering they still have some 2008 left at a discounted $650 a bottle, I see they are busy trying to sell them all before the 2010 Grange comes out later in the year.
