I never thought this would happen to me

[Croquet King]

Leasingham Classic Clare Sparkling Shiraz (apologies about the long story)

Lets get it out there - I'm a fan of this wine. Over recent years I've had the 98, 02, 04 and 05.
Really enjoyed them. I had the 02 with duck and it was a perfect match.
It's got a bit of sweet fruit on the nose but a dry finish.

Thinking back to all the bottles I've purchased, they usually cost me somewhere from $40 to $60. Depending on specials etc.

Anyway, I'm out for a walk and end up at my local bottle shop and I start talking to the manager (who is the only one there).
We start getting on to markups in the wine industry, margin in each bottle.
I ask him if he's got anything he recommends and he says he's got a wine that's cheaper than Dan's and he points to the 2006 Leasingham Classic Clare Sparkling Shiraz. I look at the price tag and its $19.99 per bottle or $13.99 by the 6.

Now something doesn't seem right. It looks like the right wine but I'm starting to think if I'm confused. The price is wrong. I ask him to double check. No that's the right price. I say to him to put a dozen aside and I'll go home and get my car.

I walk home and start researching. In fact I have some of this in my cellar. I get it out, look at it and it's the same wine that I paid $50 for.

I drive back to the shop. He tells me he has 9 6 packs plus 2 bottles and yes they are $13.99 per bottle.

I ask again that he's ok to sell it to me at that price. All confirmed.
I ask him to go and get a couple of glasses and I open a bottle right there in the shop. Certainly tastes as expected.
So there we are drinking this bottle at 11am on a Saturday morning, in the bottle shop, that seems too good to be true.

I buy all the remaining stock and load it into my car.

Who knows what happened. I tripled checked and asked multiple times that it was the right price. Maybe someone entered the wrong buy price into the system, so it allowed the cheaper sales prices.

Whatever it was I'm the owner of a few bottles of wine I love at a bargain price.

[JamieBahrain]

Congrats !

Goes the other way more often. I spend more time on managing my wine portfolio from overcharging, lost deliveries, lost stock etc than my investment portfolio. Didn't happen in Australia but sure seems to part of the international game. The UK the worst.

[simon1980]

Good story! Reminds me of the time I was in a supermarket in the uk and decided to put a bottle of 96 Veuve in a mixed 6. It was about GBP30 so a lot of money for me at the time. When it went through the checkout, it came up at GBP12. I had it rescanned, and that was the price in a 6. I then spent 4 hours touring local supermarkets clearing them out...30 odd bottles in the end.

Best thing about this was it gave me the opportunity to share with friends, and watch the development of the wine over time. A lot of good times were had with that mistake...

[Croquet King]

Best thing about this was it gave me the opportunity to share with friends, and watch the development of the wine over time. A lot of good times were had with that mistake...

That's what I did yesterday.
I called up some of my wine buying friends and asked them to come over.
I split the wine with them and we are all happy. I kept 28 bottles and divided the rest up.

I also called other bottle shops of the same name but no one had it. If they did I was going to clean out all of Sydney

[Ian S]

I loved that you repeatedly gave them the chance to spot if it was a mistake. Your approach means there should be no guilt or regret at all.

[JamieBahrain]

With all the online, secret sales of premium and expensive Aussie wine, I wouldn't bother questioning seemingly bargain offers these days.

[Ozzie W]

Well done and I love the story behind it!

I also enjoy Sparkling Shiraz and the Leasingham is certainly right up there with the best of them. Such a pity they are no longer made.

[Chris H]

Think I can guess what wine will be accompanying the Christmas Turkey at your placefor the next 10 years

[phillisc]

Yes a couple of similar ones:

Sepplets 97 GW Reserve, the last one before the St Peters, put out at the same price as the base model...3 dozen at $12 pb
Wynns 01 Harold Single Vineyard release Cabernet at a local SA chain, manager said no one knew what it was, and was considered inferior, a 'diluted' version of the Black Label...sat on the floor for months. Marked down from $40 to $24 and included in the 30% off sale...so 4 six packs at $17 pb

I often think there is way too much hype with just about any wine I can think of...many wines are pitched like pre-market auction campaigns...so and so asked this for vintage X/house X and sold a few at that price so that's what we will do...and they sit and they sit and they and hey bingo

Speaking of situations which may have cost some poor smuck their job and yes a little guilt when I finally realised weeks later bank error in your favour...
2 dozen 02 Mesh and 2 dozen 02 Petaluma...check out operator scanned a bottle of each and visa statement debited $34:98...for 48 bottles of Riesling
98 389 scanned at the same price as 98 28...a case purchase of each...what's not to love.

CK, I often scour small independents in obscure locales, generally stores well out in the burbs and over the years like the bargain you have described, have picked up many myself.
Happy days!

Cheers
Craig

[Croquet King]

Think I can guess what wine will be accompanying the Christmas Turkey at your placefor the next 10 years

That's exactly what I thought when I put it in my cellar.

[dave vino]

Colour me disappointed, after the reading the subject line I was expecting a ribald story in the style of Penthouse Forum, involving Petrus, DRC, drunk swimsuit models and CK as the leading man and all I got was a few bottles of sparkling shiraz....

[brodie]

Colour me disappointed, after the reading the subject line I was expecting a ribald story in the style of Penthouse Forum, involving Petrus, DRC, drunk swimsuit models and CK as the leading man and all I got was a few bottles of sparkling shiraz....

Dave, can I move into your imagination please? It sounds like the kind of place I would enjoy!

Brodie

[mychurch]

The thing is though, to get those rare bargains, you have to walk in and look around, Thats fine, but the only way I know of not buying any wine is to stay out of temptations way. Does not matter how much I have in my ready to drink pile, how little room there is to store something, I always buy. Thus the potential saving of a bargain case is more than trumped by the countless bottles I have bought that I just dont really need... Always fun though when you do strike gold...

[Mahmoud Ali]

Nice story there Croquet King, and it's always fun to share the bounty. I've had a few nice things come my way but am reluctant to narrate them. In one instance, when I got something at a very steep discount, I gave away a few bottles to my dinner guests as parting gifts.

Mahmoud.

[Ian S]

Colour me disappointed, after the reading the subject line I was expecting a ribald story in the style of Penthouse Forum, involving Petrus, DRC, drunk swimsuit models and CK as the leading man and all I got was a few bottles of sparkling shiraz....

Dave, can I move into your imagination please? It sounds like the kind of place I would enjoy!

Brodie

Just keep drinking the sparkling shiraz and it will come naturally

[Scotty vino]

I was watching the cricket once and Bill Lawry was commentating.
The batsmen hit the ball out of the ground for a six and a young lad picked it up.
Bill Lawry then exclaimed "take it and run son, take it and run!!".

Sometimes you just gotta take it and run.