The Auswine Forum

Does anyone know/remember what price the 1990 HOG was released at?

I remember buying the 1991 for $75 in Melbourne.

TIA
Brodie

Hi Brodie, I paid $30 a bottle and then received 10% off for dozen(s) buys...so $27 from a well known Adelaide independent.
I sold them for 15 times the purchase price about a decade or so later.
Cheers Craig

PS. Jamie Hong Kong will be all over it...CD price was considerably more I believe, but back then bottle shops didn't work themselves into a lather over 'special' wines, IIRC at the time the tone was it was one wine among many. Interestingly '90 Grange was $105 and same bottle shop had the attitude, how many would you like?

purchased mine at Dan's for $27.99. I think I got a dozen discount, but not really sure. I know it was that price because a couple had the original tag when I looked at them about 2010.

the success and subsequent phenomenal upwards spiral of the 1990 Grange was what led the Henschkes to rapidly escalate the price of HoG from the 99 vintage onwards.

at current cost, I wouldn't go near either with a barge pole, but each to his own.

I also recall paying $30 for the 90, it was one of my first big-name wine purchases,

My last 1990 in there somewhere sadly. It was a great wine. $30 I recall too at CD. By 1993 vintage it was $100 at CD with a one bottle limit. I'll drink my last 1993 next month.

I have only 8 bottles of HofG left. Peaked at 50 I think - most shared in formal tastings.


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In the spring of 1995, when I was in Perth, a local bottle shop was advertising the 1990 Grange for A$99 a bottle. Had I been heading home instead of Hong Kong and China I might have bought a bottle or two. Can't remember if they had Hill of Grace.

I paid $32 at CD.. limit of 3 bottles. Same day Mt Ed was $14.40, but it was the 91 vintage.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Wow $30 for HOG, those were the days huh.

Will be having a bottle mid next year as part of the 30 year look back on the 1990 vintage. 1990 is interesting as it was a really good year in France, Italy, Germany, Australia and NZ. We will have all countries covered I hope.

Brodie

brodie wrote:Will be having a bottle mid next year as part of the 30 year look back on the 1990 vintage. 1990 is interesting as it was a really good year in France, Italy, Germany, Australia and NZ. We will have all countries covered I hope.

Cool, a friend of mine has been talking about a Fall of the Berlin Wall tasting, so 30 year-old wines from 1989. It was supposed to be in December but what with the Christmas rush it has been postponed to early next year.

Mike Hawkins wrote:I paid $32 at CD.. limit of 3 bottles. Same day Mt Ed was $14.40, but it was the 91 vintage.

Mike 90 Mt. Ed $150 a dozen sadly all gone.
Cheers Craig

felixp21 wrote: what led the Henschkes to rapidly escalate the price of HoG from the 99 vintage onwards.

The Henschke's can get quite a bit of stick on the forums for charging what they do and I do remember a poignant sign at a Toorak wine shop in the early 90's. They were selling HofG 5 x cellar door price at least, the empty Henschke shelves noted "Apologies due international demand, HofG is well out of stock". I was a domestic airline pilot with Ansett and visited the Barossa every few weeks so would pick up the market lag between little ol' SA and the eastern states. This before the days of $20 airfares and internet proliferation.

This was before the price escalation of the late 90's toward the hundreds of dollars per bottle that you mentioned. More the tripling of prices from say $30 to $100 at CD.

I've no problem with what Henschkes did. Not sure of your thoughts Felix? The alternative is a loyal cellar door mailing list of "flippers" who profit on the success of the winery. I know some wineries still follow the loyal customer philosophy and I'm a beneficiary being on mailing lists of Barolo producers who rocketed to fame. Monfortino for instance, is a fraction of the market price and Mascarello last vintage $80 AUD a bottle.

phillisc wrote:

Mike Hawkins wrote:I paid $32 at CD.. limit of 3 bottles. Same day Mt Ed was $14.40, but it was the 91 vintage.

Mike 90 Mt. Ed $150 a dozen sadly all gone.
Cheers Craig

Can’t even get one for that nowadays

brodie wrote:Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Wow $30 for HOG, those were the days huh.

Will be having a bottle mid next year as part of the 30 year look back on the 1990 vintage. 1990 is interesting as it was a really good year in France, Italy, Germany, Australia and NZ. We will have all countries covered I hope.

Brodie

USA too

I remember working in Williamstown in Melbourne in '93, parking outside the office wasn't great and there was always a risk of getting a ticket. We used to describe the parking ticket as a Hill of Grace, as the fine was about $25, which was about the asking price of HoG at the time, not sure if it was '90 at the time.

Interestingly, I have just checked some old Nick's price lists from the late 70's/early 80's, Henschke doesn't get a mention at all, but there are plenty of other wines with prices to make you weep!

Very many years ago, in the early 90's, a friend found a couple of Henschke's at one Edmonton's first private retail store. The owner of the store specialized in bringing in some less known Australian wines including a small budding winery with white hand-written labels. I wish I could remember the name of the winery. Anyway, my friend inserted the two Henschke wines into two flights of wine. The wines were served blind but what I remember most clearly was that the second Henschke so clearly resembled the first one that I remarked on it. Both were rich and deeply fruited, with a menthol and ketone note - the kind of attactive note one gets passing by the chem labs in university and, funnily enough, can stimulate hunger - or maybe it was because I usually hadn't had lunch. At the tasting the wine that took the spotlight was a 1983 negociant Saint-Joseph that was a decade old. I don't recall anybody being impressed by the Henschkes probably because of it's unusual profile. My friend did tell everyone that Henschke had a good reputation in Australia. I later saw the wines at the wine store but did not pull the trigger. Silly me.