The Auswine Forum

daver6 wrote:From Hallidays site:

Grange: 99 points; drink to 2060
707: 98 points; drink to 2040
RWT: 98 points; drink to 2040;
St Henri: 89 points; drink to 2021 - Ouch! Under 90 pts from Halliday!
407: 95 points; drink to 2032
28: 92 points; drink to 2032
Yattarna: 97 points; drink to 2025;
Reserve Bin A: 95 points; drink to 2022
Bin 51 Riesling: 95 points; drink to 2025

At least the low score for St Henri may push many higher end buyers towards 707 and Grange... Cynical, me?

..it's a yawnfest....

Sean,
just for the record, Slurp will not be taking a hit on the 2010 Grange, as it is WET/GST free here, and I can also guarantee you now that $525 certainly will not be the lowest price in HK when released fully. Pretty easy to pick up most Grange below $450 here in HK.
Slurp rarely have the lowest prices in town, although a lot cheaper than non-etailers such as Watson's.

felixp wrote:Sean,
just for the record, Slurp will not be taking a hit on the 2010 Grange, as it is WET/GST free here, and I can also guarantee you now that $525 certainly will not be the lowest price in HK when released fully. Pretty easy to pick up most Grange below $450 here in HK.
Slurp rarely have the lowest prices in town, although a lot cheaper than non-etailers such as Watson's.

Hey All,

I just went on the Slurp.com.hk , which is selling a bottle of 08 Grange for Au$612. In comparison, the same wine at Watson's is for $857 per bottle. I got my 08 Grange at DM's for $599 back in 2013. Thanks.

Well, that is at today's exchange rate of under 7 HKD (6.87).
In 2013 it was over 8HKD per 1AUD. At 8, 4200HKD is 525.

It is also the reason why some Burg prices in Australia are not too bad now..they were bought when the AUD was over 1 USD so the drop in AUD has made it priced better relative to if you were to buy it overseas now.

I had to snigger at what I saw in an email from another online retailer already trying to flog the 2010 Grange:

100 Points Andrew Caillard (Langtons) | 100 Points Tyson Stelzer | "101 Points" quip by Huon Hooke

"[I]f some high-profile tasters...rated the 2008 at 100 points, where will they go with the 2010? A hundred-and-one would seem to be underdoing it" Huon Hooke

It seems CraigNZ was ahead of his time with the 107 point scale.

^^

We will soon be in Rugby League Post Match Interview territory, with the ubiquitous, "I gave it 110%".

yes, I wonder what the critic ( ) who gave St Henri 2010 100pts will give the Grange? Given it is 7x more expensive, why buy it???

you can get the 2008 Grange in HK for $480, if you buy a dozen, or $530 by the individual bottle. I got a dozen for friends who want to take back to Australia.

I wonder if the St Henri score was a typo, ie supposed to be 98 points instead. 89 from JH is the equivalent of wine from a bag.

Has anyone tried the 2012 Bin 389? And what prices are you finding it for?

Waiters Friend wrote:Has anyone tried the 2012 Bin 389? And what prices are you finding it for?

I believe its released tomorrow.

Halliday scores it at 97 points and says;

Deep, dense crimson-purple; the profound bouquet offers every kind of black fruits imaginable, large and small, yet somehow leaves a space and air in the mix for more complex secondary characters to emerge given time - lots of it. The palate takes all this, and adds to it with barrel ferment characters introducing licorice and touches of wild herb. This wine fully lives up to the great expectations held of it (and the vintage). Arguably the bargain of the release.

I still have 2 dozen of the 2010 in my cellar. I better stock up on this as well.

Managed to taste a number of the new releases last night at TWE. '12 Bin 150, 407, 389, '11 St Henri, '12 RWT, '10 Grange

Have to say I was reasonably impressed, even the St Henri showed well. Faves probably 407, 389, RWT. Some brief notes below ....

2012 Bin150 Marananga Shiraz
Fruit from valley floor, North/north west area, Fr/am oak, larger format puncheons, 25% new
Deep purple red, almost blue, some spice, pepper, blue black fruits, chalky tannins, intensity,

2012 Bin 407 Cabernet
Fr/am oak, uses previous 707 barrels, fruit from Wrattonbully and other areas
black purple, some mintiness, black fruit bouquet, cedar, fine tannins, fleshy fruit, beautiful bouquet,

2012 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
100%am oak, 40% new, 54%cabernet
Deep purple black, black fruits bouquet, dustiness, grippy mouthfeel, medium fine tannins, black red fruits, good structure, beautiful bouquet, some oak coming through, reasonably approachable,

2011 St Henri Shiraz
Deep purple black, beautiful bouquet again, some savouriness, liquorice, v attractive bouquet, floral, beautiful fruit,

2012 RWT Barossa Valley Shiraz
Fr oak, 16mo in 75% new, fruit from Moppa, Kalimna, Ebenezer, bit of Marananga,
Black, purple edge, some VA, black blue fruits, great structure, subdued oak, beautiful bouquet again, slightly chalky tannins, structure

2010 Grange
60th consecutive release of Grange, 96% Shiraz, fruit from Barossa, McLaren Vale, Adl Hills, Magill,
Black, purple edge, Coconutty, vanilla, little bit of lifted nose, tannins, black fruits, full, rich, great length, but tight, impressive

Probably said this before, but their approach is really to make the wines to a consistent style, multi regional blending etc, very much a house style approach. The Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz was really the only one close to "single vineyard". Also interesting how consistent the appearance of the wines were, I suspect it would be difficult to use appearance to tell them apart, all quite deep near black purple with a narrow purple rim. Another general comment was that they were all reasonably approachable.

Thanks Malcolm,
Just the 389 for me at the moment.
Would love some of the Magill...but might need to start robbing banks

Cheers
Craig

Craig, got a small number of 407 and 389 myself. Would love the RWT and 707, but budget can't reach that far atm!

A couple of 389’s to put away and perhaps half dozen 28’s for me, if they can be had for somewhere significantly under the $40 RRP. Some hints may or may not be dropped to the significant other that a bottle of the RWT would make a nice Christmas gift.

Any thoughts on potential deviations from the RRP from retailers?

Well they're off and racing this morning. Hopefully a few 'super-specials' appear over the next few days - any idea how long it takes for the retail war to begin?

Grange is down to $644. I guess it will bounce back once the stock dries up.

I just grabbed 6 Grange. Shhh, Don't tell my wife.

Just visited my local Dans. On tasting :
Bin 28 - Very Good
Bin 407- Nothing special and not worth the money
Bin 389- Okay, almost a mix of the 28 with the 407 (i know its a shiraz/cab),
Value for money I would choose the 28 at just under $30, however in that price bracket there is a lot of competition, and walked away with 2 Grant Burge Filsell (2012).
However I could not resist the RWT, at just under $130.

I tasted the 389. Big and slightly awkward. It needs time and likely a lot of it. I picked up a couple and to a cool dark place they have travelled.

28 wasn't available for tasting when I popped in, so will hold off for now and revisit on the weekend.

felixp wrote:yes, I wonder what the critic ( ) who gave St Henri 2010 100pts will give the Grange? Given it is 7x more expensive, why buy it???

I think there is a parallel with HOG and ME. I frequently prefer the latter despite a 6 times pricing differential.

I find it hilarious getting hounded by compaines flogging their Grange 'pre-release special' with lowest prices only going to 'go up' and seeing it available on release day for cheaper than they were offering.

I am pleasantly surprised how cheap the release has been from the big chains.... very surprised to see the 389 from such a good vintage at under $60...

Although also surprised to see them holding the St Henri at >$70 from the much weaker 2011 vintage!

Tried the Grange and 707 today. The 2012 707 is a stunner, so approachable now but likely to get even better! The Grange however was tight and pretty shy(was pretty much popped and poured) Drying tannins but still a fantastic wine, would love to see this in 10+ years!

Will be trying the other Bin wines over the coming days, great to try them but unlikely to buy, I'd prefer sending my dollars to some smaller producers.

Also funny to note Halliday's 2011 St Henri score as 'N/A' on the critics score sheet

alexc92 wrote:Also funny to note Halliday's 2011 St Henri score as 'N/A' on the critics score sheet

Noticed that also.. pretty poor form!

Where'd you get to taste the Grange and 707?

cosmonaut wrote:

alexc92 wrote:Also funny to note Halliday's 2011 St Henri score as 'N/A' on the critics score sheet

Noticed that also.. pretty poor form!

Where'd you get to taste the Grange and 707?

In-store tasting at The Melbourne Winehouse.

Been getting multiple offers of Grange 2010 today out of the UK, most between $510-550 at current exchange rate. That is good news for any Honkie wanting to buy it, usually the price here is either comparable or 5% cheaper than the UK.
Not for me at that price, but I already got a short list of Aussies wanting me to buy them a bottle or two to take home the next time they visit. It remains a sad fact that the icon of Australian wines, and amongst the world's top ten red wines, is both cheaper and easier to procure OUTSIDE Australia.

I agree..that is unfortunate....WET and GST is a killer...

You only see that for larger producers though...smaller ones tend to be a bit more expensive overseas...

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