The Auswine Forum

Bonjour,

If classification exist in Australia which will be the candidate for 1stGrowth?
707, Mount Mary, Wynn Riddoch, Mosswood & Cullen came to my mind.
Any other suggestion?

Salut,
Pascal.

707 and JR? Not in my 1st Growth book.
I would put Grange in there though.
And if I was being modern, I would also put Wolf Blass Platinum and, now, Clonakilla S-V.
Giaconda Chard.
Leeuwin Chard.
Leonay.
Rockford BP, like it or not it is an aussie legend.
Graveyard shiraz.

Jeremy Oliver keeps an ever-changing list of perfect 1s, which are meant to be the equivalent of a 1st growth or grand cru.

The list from the last annual:

Bannockburn Serre Pinot Noir
Bass Phillip Reserve Pinot Noir
Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier
Cullen DM Cab Merlot
Giaconda Chardonnay
Grosset Polish Hill
Henschke HOG
Leeuwin Chardonnay
Leo Buring Leonay Eden Valley
Mount Mary Quintet
Penfolds Bin 707
Penfolds Grange
Petaluma Coonawarra
Petaluma Tiers Chardonnay
Pierro Chardonnay
Wolf Blass Platinum Label

From his own ratings, a couple of other wines are unlucky not to be listed, like Orlando Steingarten, Runrig, Seppelt St Peters and Epis Pinot Noir.

Kieran

Langtons have a reasonable approach to 'classifying' australian wines:

They use 4 classifications:
Exceptional
Outstanding
Excellent
Distinguished

Ther are 89 wines across the 4 classifications, with the Exceptional (or maybe 1st Growth equivalents) being:

PENFOLDS Bin 95 Grange Shiraz
HENSCHKE Hill of Grace Shiraz
LEEUWIN ESTATE Art Series Chardonnay
MOSS WOOD Cabernet Sauvignon
MOUNT MARY Quintet Cabernet Blend
PENFOLDS Bin 707Cabernet Sauvignon
WENDOUREE Shiraz

see http://www2.langtons.com.au/wine/inv_cl ... tion_2.asp

I thought that Langton's classification was based more around resale values achieved than on some measure of how good a wine is?

I heard Langtons are likely to be updating their classifications soon. It'll be interesting to see where so called cult wines with limited lineage figure.

Mike

Yeah im fairly sure Langtons is based on demand more than quility even though most of their classifacation wines are of good quility that system leaves a few notables missing.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah im fairly sure Langtons is based on demand more than quility even though most of their classifacation wines are of good quility that system leaves a few notables missing.

Like????

Handy wrote:I thought that Langton's classification was based more around resale values achieved than on some measure of how good a wine is?

I would have thought that a good measure of a wines 'quality' is the level of demand for it on the open market. Of all the possible empirical measures that could be used to define Australia's 'First Growths' it is probably the most relevant and the least biased. Otherwise I am not certain how you measure the concept of 'How Good'!!!

It should also be noted that a wine has to perform consistently over many years to be listed, that is why you do not see the cult wines like Three Rivers, Runrig, Veritas Hanisch, Greenock Creek, etc. listed.

Alberfeldy,RWT,Clonakilla,Wolf Blass Platinum etc etc...Need I go on?

Even Cullen doesn't make Langton's top tier yet.

Kieran

Handy wrote:I thought that Langton's classification was based more around resale values achieved than on some measure of how good a wine is?

Well, that was the basis used in 1855, so it's hardly without precedent. Although I grant that Burgundy doesn't follow the same approach. Since we don't have the finely delineated divisions of AOC (there's nothing to stop Henschke selling a bottle of red swill labelled 'Hill of Grace') I guess value achieved in open market is as good a measure as any - given that it's an informed market.

On which basis, Langton's exclusion of wines without a sufficient (10 vintage) track record is reasonable. Although, it's hard to see how the Wendouree justifies it's place in the current list on just price alone...

cheers,
Graeme