The Auswine Forum

http://www.executivestyle.com.au/is-penfold ... benref=smh

Can see this hitting secondary market for about $1000-$1200

dave vino wrote:http://www.executivestyle.com.au/is-penfold ... benref=smh

Can see this hitting secondary market for about $1000-$1200

Or Dave we do a series of offlines where we bring or make our own blend...doesn't say much for the yet to be released 14.

Cheers
Craig

We need to do a Baller Blend, 71, 76, 90

Must have been a slow day in the Marketing dept of Penfolds.

Let the Chinese have it all and they can mix it with coke.

I really like Peter, he’s a genuinely good bloke. But to say that this isn’t a gimmick baffles me (although it rates behind being a money grab).

I know he loves champers, particularly BDB, and even more particularly, Krug CdM..... which is of course a single vintage release. Anyhoo

Sami Odi Little Wine is much cheaper. But granted, harder to get!

-- George Krashos

I was surprised not to be invited to this by Penfolds. My Facebook page lit up with friends who were.


"Its really an amazing and creative idea from the Chief Winemaker Mr Peter Gago!"

I really wonder who makes these decisions at TWE. Accountants chasing bottom line?

Maybe it's just advertising?

Looking for Benfolds to now follow suite.

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It's extraordinary what they charge for Penfolds wines in China. Yep, a lot to do with tax, but wow, that's some market considering the premium!

Some extracts of the CEO's comments at TWE's FY17 results in August... Worse than the Stooney Goose parodies. Satire loses its bite when the original is beyond mockery. That said, hadn't looked at the share price- hope you all went long TWE, short Bin 389!

"Increasing production of white wine under the Penfolds banner, represents an additional phase of growth and believe me, we have some exciting plans for those brand on a global -- on a global stage in fiscal ' 19 and beyond. Also our Penfolds Max's (inaudible) has been so successful, the brand is now on allocation across all regions. Now onto 19 Crimes, which continues to grow from strength to strength. As another multi-regionally sourced innovation, we extended the brand with two more launches in the second half.

Firstly with Hard Chard, which launches 19 Crimes into the white wine category. Specifically, targeting millennial consumers, Hard Chard features the story of the first female convict to Australia. Secondly, we launched the Uprising, a new red blend aged in rum barrels that pays homage to Australia's rum(inaudible) billion of 18 or 8.19 Crimes is now supported by Augmented Reality marketing where consumers can bring three of the infamous roads to life virtually, using a mobile phone app held over the label. Testament to the success of this brand, 19 Crimes recently hit the 1 million case mark and outstanding milestone for one of our newest propositions"

Later in answer to a question on saturation in China: "In China and Asia, we have only just begun, there is so much more upside for us in Asia. If you talk to most of our partners in Asia, and I know, you do Larry. They are wanting more of luxury amenities from us. We're not satisfying that demand at the moment"

[From a Bloomberg transcript, and frankly not a great one, but the gist is there]

JamieBahrain wrote:I was surprised not to be invited to this by Penfolds. My Facebook page lit up with friends who were.

Courting controversy here, dare I say it, but.... racial profiling, perhaps?

I loved this line-

It was a very pragmatic journey of to make something new and different without it being a gimmick, or a brand extension

JamieBahrain wrote:It's extraordinary what they charge for Penfolds wines in China. Yep, a lot to do with tax, but wow, that's some market considering the premium!

Jamie, there are literally millions of Chinese with unbelievably deep pockets. Honestly, they don't actually consider the price in many instances.
Having said that, there is a bit of BS coming out of Penfold's re China. Other than Grange and 707, which are still sold in comparatively tiny quantities here, I don't see much evidence of significant sales. I am in Shenzhen, Changsha, Wuhan and Shanghai a lot, and hardly see any Pennies on the shelves.

Yes I know Felix. Ive been here 15 years and they are my retirement gamble.

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Back up the truck. I'll take 3 dozen!

rens wrote:Back up the truck. I'll take 3 dozen!

met a gentleman last night whose father in law purchased 6 bottles!

It's great high net worth individuals splash their money about .

I didn't think there would be a market for such a wine but good for Penfolds .

I find a couple of things in the article particularly galling. First, the comment that says "The average wine drinker will be lucky to get a bottle ..." Never mind luck, the average wine drinker cannot afford to buy a bottle of the g3. Secondly, Peter Gago is quoted as saying "The great champagnes as far as I'm concerned are the lovely blends, so the g3 is in effect a blend of a blend ..." This appears to be sophistry at it's best because the non-vintage champagnes of most Champagne houses are the least expensive. And to call a vintage Grange a "blend" is a stretch. And even if one were to concede that a dollop of cabernet in the Grange makes it a blend, then so are the components of champagne that go into the making of a non-vintage champagne.

On a lighter note, if I were to buy three different vintages of Grange, available here in Canada for $600 to $700 each, and blend them, would I have three bottles more expensive bottles somewhat equivalent to the g3, albeit not as expertly blended as Peter Gago's g3. Perhaps I should think of buying a couple recent vintages of Grange and freshen up my 1983 Grange. And why only three vintages, why not four, or maybe five or six?

Cheers ........................ Mahmoud.

Mahmoud Ali wrote:I find a couple of things in the article particularly galling. First, the comment that says "The average wine drinker will be lucky to get a bottle ..." Never mind luck, the average wine drinker cannot afford to buy a bottle of the g3. Secondly, Peter Gago is quoted as saying "The great champagnes as far as I'm concerned are the lovely blends, so the g3 is in effect a blend of a blend ..." This appears to be sophistry at it's best because the non-vintage champagnes of most Champagne houses are the least expensive. And to call a vintage Grange a "blend" is a stretch. And even if one were to concede that a dollop of cabernet in the Grange makes it a blend, then so are the components of champagne that go into the making of a non-vintage champagne.

On a lighter note, if I were to buy three different vintages of Grange, available here in Canada for $600 to $700 each, and blend them, would I have three bottles more expensive bottles somewhat equivalent to the g3, albeit not as expertly blended as Peter Gago's g3. Perhaps I should think of buying a couple recent vintages of Grange and freshen up my 1983 Grange. And why only three vintages, why not four, or maybe five or six?

Cheers ........................ Mahmoud.

To be fair Mahmoud, Grange is a regional blend in a way few major wines are, so I think the sophistry accusation is a bit tough!

Totally agree with your first point re the average wine drinker throwing this much dosh at a bottle of plonk

Mahmoud Ali wrote:would I have three bottles more expensive bottles somewhat equivalent to the g3, albeit not as expertly marketed as Peter Gago's g3.

FIFY

I may be overly harsh, but I always got the impression Gago was prepared to play the marketing game that John Duval was not, hence the former stepping into the latter's role.

sjw_11 wrote:To be fair Mahmoud, Grange is a regional blend in a way few major wines are, so I think the sophistry accusation is a bit tough!

I take your point but my sophistry comment was based on two things. First, that in comparing the special and very expensive g3 multi-vintage blend with Champagne's multi-vintage blends, he is actually comparing opposites because while the g3 is more expensive than the vintage-based Grange, the non-vintage champagnes are less expensive than vintage champagne. Secondly, if the g3 is a blend of a blend, then so are the non-vintage champagnes. Both comparisons do not support the premise of the argument made for the g3 special pricing. So, one might ask, why shouldn't the g3, like non-vintage Champagne, be less expensive than the vintage Grange? Simple, Grange is made with the best fruit of the vintage and the g3 is made of Grange. The same cannot be said of non-vintage Champagne.

As to the argument of Grange being a blend I think it also fair to say that most people consider blends to be varietal rather than regional. In most wine parlance blends refer to varietal blends, like Bordeaux, Chateauneufs, and GSMs. For example we wouldn't say that a Jacob's Creek Shiraz is a blend, for then we would have to say that Jacob's Creek Cab/Shiraz is a blend-blend and of course we don't do that.

Ian S wrote:

Mahmoud Ali wrote:would I have three bottles more expensive bottles somewhat equivalent to the g3, albeit not as expertly marketed as Peter Gago's g3.

FIFY

I may be overly harsh, but I always got the impression Gago was prepared to play the marketing game that John Duval was not, hence the former stepping into the latter's role.

Very clever substitution there Ian, I almost missed it!

I met John Duvall at an Artisans of the Barossa tasting at the Sydney Custom House. Although there were fine wines in everyone's portfolio, John Duvall's wines were uniformly excellent.

Cheers ................. Mahmoud.

If you were worth a few hundred million dollars , would you try a bottle? I would. But as the price of a bottle is about my monthly wine budget I'd be mad to waste money considering the alternatives .

The rapidly growing high net worth individual is probably the market . Not sentimental auswiners.

I don't have a problem with the wine and note a few positives .

JamieBahrain wrote:If you were worth a few hundred million dollars , would you try a bottle? I would. But as the price of a bottle is about my monthly wine budget I'd be mad to waste money considering the alternatives .

The rapidly growing high net worth individual is probably the market . Not sentimental auswiners.

I don't have a problem with the wine and note a few positives.

Does one have to have a few hundred million dollars, wouldn't a tenth of that suffice? As for "sentimental auswiners" (or did you mean aus-whiners) I'm hard-pressed to find anything in this thread that suggests any of the posters either wanted the wine or wish it was cheaper. In fact a few refered to the fact that it was meant for the wealthy.

Mahmoud.

I was going to do the cellar tour when in town, next month & re-try the restaurant. Then decided against giving this bloated corporate behemoth more of my money. This thread reinforces my decision.

Taking into account the use of "back vintage" wine, my issue with G3 is that it is ridiculously expensive for what you get. It would be way smarter to simply buy 3 bottles of Grange itself - or more correctly, a bottle of 08, 12 and next year 14. I can't see any basis to charge $3K/bottle for this. It's not better than Grange, it's just different to Grange. A wine only for the mega-rich or the trophy hunters IMO.

Would love to taste it blind with Sami Odi Little Wine though ... for perspective

-- George Krashos

went to my first wine club meeting in a while the other night, having returned from Aus after an extended period this time.
mulling over a superb bottle of 2009 Eglise Clinet, the discussion headed to G3.
Now, of the ten of us, there are three that are worth substantially more than "a few hundred million" dollars, and all three laughed at the idea of buying any of it. Same logic as above, why not just buy three bottles of the individual vintages and blend them?
you see, rich people usually get there, particularly in China, because they are smart. Not always, but usually.
So, it leaves me to doubt that China will "embrace" this wine, but of course Penfolds will happily tell us that there is a frenzy over here in China to get hold of the stuff.
hmmmm, anyone else starting to get a general smell about present-day Penfolds? Is it the same stench exuded by those sneaky Dutchies and their tulips all those years ago? Smells very similar to me!!!!!

Disagree with you Felix having toured and been hosted at LVMH vineyards. I also know what's in private mainland Chinese jets . There's a market there I'm sure - and Penfolds have strangled the grey marketeering into China so G3 would be part of a wider strategy.

I have a lot less respect for mainland wealth than you do . Smart? Corrupt and without morals .