Three bottles of SA wine sell for $145,000 in the US

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:20 pm

THREE bottles of South Australian wine have sold for almost $A145,000 at auction in the United States.
The Barossa Valley Ares Shiraz, Aphrodite Cabernet Sauvignon and Aerope Grenache - all produced by Two Hands Wines - fetched a total of $US130,000 ($A144,260) at the Naples Winter Wine Festival in Florida.

Move over Grange, here comes Two hands

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,23636,23156090-31037,00.html?from=mostpop

Daryl Douglas · Post by **Daryl Douglas** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:06 am

I slurped through a couple of cases of the Lucky Country Cab 04(?). Apparently it didn't suit the US palate so was dumped on the Oz market at very good prices, $9-$12, and was a very good quaff at that level and better value than Mike Press Shiraz 05 at $15 (incl freight).

There must be a rich fool in America!

daz

Edit: Or there's a marketing ploy in play?

Nayan · Post by **Nayan** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:19 am

A marketing ploy, from Michael Twelftree? Would never happen! :wink:

Mike Hawkins · Post by **Mike Hawkins** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 3:01 am

Don't read anything into this. The Naples auction is one of the best known charity auctions, and over here, anything paid above market price is a tax deductible charity donation.

Ian S · Post by **Ian S** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:48 am

Mike Hawkins wrote:Don't read anything into this. The Naples auction is one of the best known charity auctions, and over here, anything paid above market price is a tax deductible charity donation.

That would be US$129,700 worth of tax exemption then :wink:

I did read elsewhere that the exemption isn't quite that generous though - of the order of 20% of the total?

Also in dedence, the charitable element is apparently the major driver for the auction and difficult to knock it unless there's heavy duty 'tax efficiency' activities going on.

Red Bigot · Post by **Red Bigot** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:47 am

Ian S wrote:
Mike Hawkins wrote:Don't read anything into this. The Naples auction is one of the best known charity auctions, and over here, anything paid above market price is a tax deductible charity donation.

That would be US$129,700 worth of tax exemption then

I saw a par elswhere that indicated they were 6l bottles.

Scanlon · Post by **Scanlon** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:51 am

Daryl Douglas wrote:I slurped through a couple of cases of the Lucky Country Cab 04(?). Apparently it didn't suit the US palate so was dumped on the Oz market at very good prices, $9-$12, and was a very good quaff at that level and better value than Mike Press Shiraz 05 at $15 (incl freight).

There must be a rich fool in America!

daz

Edit: Or there's a marketing ploy in play?

I received one of these from a wine club, and was eyeballing it suspiciously thanks to the interesting name they gave it - glad it's drinkable afterall!

Red Bigot · Post by **Red Bigot** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:38 pm

Daryl Douglas wrote:I slurped through a couple of cases of the Lucky Country Cab 04(?). Apparently it didn't suit the US palate so was dumped on the Oz market at very good prices, $9-$12, and was a very good quaff at that level and better value than Mike Press Shiraz 05 at $15 (incl freight).

Dunno why it wouldn't suit the Americans, it's sweet enough. I scored a sample bottle and couldn't finish it, it starts out Ok but rapidly got cloying and wasn't good with the food we were eating (and it wasn't Thai this time) and the 15% a/v started to stand out a bit too.