The Auswine Forum

Mahmoud Ali wrote:Perhaps dumped is the wrong word for wines bought at auction, maybe the wine is overpriced and the auction price is the true value.
Mahmoud.

Some wines have been literally dumped at auction before - I remember years ago Constellation (now Accolade) dumping back vintages of Leasingham Classic Shiraz at Langtons (the listings specifically mentioned they were direct from the winery) because it seemed such a bizarre and brazen move at the time. I have also seen plenty of liquidated stock go through places like Oddbins too over the years.

These days it's a lot more hazy because Langtons are owned by Woolworths, most people could only guess what volumes of stock are being moved between their wholesale/retail and auction operations without any real public disclosure. If anything dumping now via their auction process could be easier, and less transparent.

JamieBahrain wrote:Had a scalped 2002 Meshach last night which was disappointing as I put my reputation on this wine as a recommendation for heaps of friends in Hong Kong where it retails for $50 AUD.

Jamie, I would certainly consider buying 02 or any vintage for that matter if I could obtain Meshach at that price in Adelaide...not hard to work out what's wrong in the wine world. It appears that the best Australian bottles/collections reside in international cellars

Cheers
Craig

Speaking of being dumped, the 2001 was offered today with "guaranteed provenance" and at a price quite a bit lower than the current release.

I organised a lunch for 13 people during the week and much to my surprise, the 2010 Meshach was the best wine of 6 SA wines tried (2 bottles of each). The reason I say I was surprised is that my palate nowadays tends to be burgundy focussed and this lunch was to accommodate a group of friends who mostly favour Australian wines and mainstream ones at that. The wines were 2010 Wynns Black label cabernet, 2010 St Halletts Old Block shiraz, 2010 Rockford Basket Press shiraz (replaced at my end of the table with a 2010 Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier as one of the Rockfords was badly corked), 2010 Meshach, 2002 St Halletts Blackwell shiraz and 2010 Penfolds Bin 150 Marananga shiraz. The Meshach was reasonably full bodied but not alcoholic or with dead fruit and had some savoury character that went well with Italian food. If I recall correctly the course that we had it with was papardelle with a lamb ragu. All the wines with the exception of the Penfolds were enjoyable in their own way. I was happy that we chose to serve the Penfolds last as it was an outrider - plush with loads of vanilla oak and sweet tasting fruit. A parody of a wine not to my taste at all.

n4sir wrote:

Mahmoud Ali wrote:Perhaps dumped is the wrong word for wines bought at auction, maybe the wine is overpriced and the auction price is the true value.
Mahmoud.

Some wines have been literally dumped at auction before - I remember years ago Constellation (now Accolade) dumping back vintages of Leasingham Classic Shiraz at Langtons (the listings specifically mentioned they were direct from the winery) because it seemed such a bizarre and brazen move at the time. I have also seen plenty of liquidated stock go through places like Oddbins too over the years.

These days it's a lot more hazy because Langtons are owned by Woolworths, most people could only guess what volumes of stock are being moved between their wholesale/retail and auction operations without any real public disclosure. If anything dumping now via their auction process could be easier, and less transparent.

Good point Ian, I hadn't thought of the winery itself dumping it at auction.

Mahmoud.