The Auswine Forum

Hi All,

I've been trying to get my hands on nice half bottles to put away and eventually take to restaurants etc when my partner and I aren't up for a whole bottle, but have only been able to find the odd half bottle at inflated prices (i.e. St Henri)...

So my question is this: can anyone suggest where i can get my hands on nice half reds 6/12 at a time (hopefully a bit cheaper?) and which wineries do them? How does one get them?

Cheers!

Tim

IME, hardly any wineries produce half-bottles (of table wine), and never at reasonable prices.

Just open a full bottle, and funnel half of it into a rinsed Grolsch bottle, and then store it in the fridge, for consumption the next evening.

I always keep a couple of Grolsch bottles handy for this purpose.

Stuart

Agreed, very few do decent halves. One exception is Rockford who seem to do their Cabernet in halves.

Otherwise I agree, by whole bottles and drink them over two nights.

beef wrote: Just open a full bottle, and funnel half of it into a rinsed Grolsch bottle, and then store it in the fridge, for consumption the next evening.

This is a great look in a fine dining restaurant

Sally's Paddock do half bottles at about half bottle prices, Henscke....um struggling here.

However that is what I love about France, you can buy a half bottle of just about anything. I usually find that two half bottles are perfect for lunch

tim1210 wrote:Hi All,

I've been trying to get my hands on nice half bottles to put away and eventually take to restaurants etc when my partner and I aren't up for a whole bottle, but have only been able to find the odd half bottle at inflated prices (i.e. St Henri)...

So my question is this: can anyone suggest where i can get my hands on nice half reds 6/12 at a time (hopefully a bit cheaper?) and which wineries do them? How does one get them?

Cheers!

Tim

There are a few decent ones around, but as you said, the price isn't always right. I find the 30% off sales at BWS a good time to pick up a few halves.

I have Rockford Cabernet, Henschke Keyneton/Euphonium, Sallys Paddock and I've seen St Hallett Blackwell.

According to wine-searcher Turkey Flat and Craiglee do shiraz halves, Moss Wood do Amy's Cabernet in halves and at the cheap end there is Koonunga Hill, Jacobs Ck and Wolf Blass Yellow label.

A pretty poor range really.

Purely for research purposes, a trip to Dan's et al might show you what is available - our local has quite a few in stock most of the time - in the 'fine wine' section.

Another typical benefit of buying the halves is they don't move so quickly - so you can often pick up stuff that is 1 - 3 years behind current vintage. Being a half, it is not likely to age as well, so drinking it is win-win.

Having said all that, I give full marks to Beef for the Grolsch suggestion. I guess I could drink 1 beer ... just for the bottle.

Glen wrote:

beef wrote: Just open a full bottle, and funnel half of it into a rinsed Grolsch bottle, and then store it in the fridge, for consumption the next evening.

This is a great look in a fine dining restaurant

Sally's Paddock do half bottles at about half bottle prices, Henscke....um struggling here.

However that is what I love about France, you can buy a half bottle of just about anything. I usually find that two half bottles are perfect for lunch

** I posit that there's no difference (with respect to "class", "image", or any other such vague and useless concept) between taking a half-bottle to a restaurant, and taking a half-full bottle to a restaurant. Fine-dining or otherwise.

Anyone disagree?

Stuart

Garry wrote:Purely for research purposes, a trip to Dan's et al might show you what is available - our local has quite a few in stock most of the time - in the 'fine wine' section.

Another typical benefit of buying the halves is they don't move so quickly - so you can often pick up stuff that is 1 - 3 years behind current vintage. Being a half, it is not likely to age as well, so drinking it is win-win.

Having said all that, I give full marks to Beef for the Grolsch suggestion. I guess I could drink 1 beer ... just for the bottle.

** I can't take credit. I got the idea from someone else on here. Might have been Gavin.

Stuart

beef wrote:** I posit that there's no difference (with respect to "class", "image", or any other such vague and useless concept) between taking a half-bottle to a restaurant, and taking a half-full bottle to a restaurant. Fine-dining or otherwise.

Anyone disagree?

Stuart

Whoops, thought you meant to take the Grolsch bottle full of wine, apologies.

The problem with taking a bottle half full is the lack of oxygen ingress control, and possibly sediment disturbance if precautions weren't taken.

There is also another fundamental problem with taking a half bottle...financial irresponsibility Let's face it, you might as well just order a couple of nice glasses from the list rather than paying corkage, especially with Australia's limited half bottle range.

Moss Wood do half bottles of their Cabernet. Melbourne Street Cellars has them in stock here in Adelaide.

Isole e Olena Chianti Classico
You can order any size bottles you want of Bordeaux en-primeur for no cost difference.

GW

At this point I'll once again make my request for someone to put a decent wine in 500ml and 1 Litre bottles. Then I wouldn't have to worry about decanting half into a 375 ml bottle etc. Thank You.

Actually when I raised this once before someone gave me a method for getting 2 x 750ml bottles into 3 x 500ml servings. How did that go again?

Found it.

Open 2 bottles on night one. Drink one glass out of each that night then you have 2 x 500ml approx serves for subsequent nights. Works well because each person can have a different wine on night one and then you can discuss and compare when you drink the remainder.

You would need 2 x 500ml bottles to decant into though. It's better if they are pretty much full to the brim for keeping purposes isn't it? ie: You wouldn't want 250-300ml equivalent of airspace in the bottle for 3-5 days?

I presume you do need to sterilise your 500ml bottles every time.

beef wrote:

Glen wrote:

beef wrote: Just open a full bottle, and funnel half of it into a rinsed Grolsch bottle, and then store it in the fridge, for consumption the next evening.

This is a great look in a fine dining restaurant

Sally's Paddock do half bottles at about half bottle prices, Henscke....um struggling here.

However that is what I love about France, you can buy a half bottle of just about anything. I usually find that two half bottles are perfect for lunch

** I posit that there's no difference (with respect to "class", "image", or any other such vague and useless concept) between taking a half-bottle to a restaurant, and taking a half-full bottle to a restaurant. Fine-dining or otherwise.

Anyone disagree?

Stuart

Oh, right - I'd formed a picture of our man whipping an old empty Grolsh bottle out of his jacket pocket in the restaurant, having ordered a 750 ml off their wine list and finding it was too much, then sloppily pouring the remainder into the Grolsh half, staining the tablecloth, and said jacket when placing the half back in pocket BUT having remains to drink at home. Now that might not be good look.

what a laugh! thanks for all the imaginative ideas everyone. i've found myself an empty verjuice bottle that will do the job nicely in the absence of a grolsch and think i will take up using it in the aforementioned manner. and i guess it's far from the end of the world if we end up drinking the whole bottle
however, FYI, i've since found out that lake's folly do halves of the cabernets for 25 bucks a pop (but you've gotta buy a dozen). anyone have any idea how the 06 vintage was in the hunter?

06 not as good as 05 or 07 for reds but still a good dry vintage. The wines will age very well.
GW

I know Mount Mary also do halves as I've seen and ordered themin restaurants but I've never seen them on the mailing order form. I guess you'd have to ring the winery. Still, they won't be cheap!

and Coriole Shiraz ..and d'Arenberg do Dead Arm in halves but not this year but will next vintage as they had to change bottle to get screwcapped halvies.

Brokenwood have just released 07 Sem in halves too - that will cellar nicely medium term.

GW

I had a half bottle of Rockford Basket Press (1999 I think) at the Victory hotel a couple of months ago - not sure if they usually produce halves (or if they are available to the public)

Brett

It is a shame more Australian wineries don't do half bottles. I love it in France and Italy how they are so common.

Half-bottle is perfect for dinner for 2 if you have to drive....

I was out at Grove Estate in Young (Hilltops) yesterday, and they have the 2006 shiraz in halves. There is a bit of viognier in it, but it is not particularly apricotty, and made by Tim Kirk at Clonakilla. What's more, in a fit of good sense, they've priced it at $15 per bottle, under screwcap, which is less than half the price of the full bottle.

tim1210 wrote:Hi All,

I've been trying to get my hands on nice half bottles to put away and eventually take to restaurants etc when my partner and I aren't up for a whole bottle, but have only been able to find the odd half bottle at inflated prices (i.e. St Henri)...

So my question is this: can anyone suggest where i can get my hands on nice half reds 6/12 at a time (hopefully a bit cheaper?) and which wineries do them? How does one get them?

Cheers!

Tim

Personally, my partner and I would be embarassed if we couldn't knock off a bottle between us over dinner......

You can always take it home as well.... you don't have to leave it there....

plod wrote:It is a shame more Australian wineries don't do half bottles. I love it in France and Italy how they are so common.

Half-bottle is perfect for dinner for 2 if you have to drive....

You both driving? One half way home, then get out and change drivers?

saw some dead arm 2004 at reasonable price - 25.98
also st. henri 2001 at 29.99

From tomorrows Tour Diary

"Reid (Kaesler Wines) has recognised the lack of availability of quality red wine in 375ml bottles and is doing something about it. The first wine released in half bottle was the 2006 Avignon. They produced 500 dozen and the wine is available from cellar door at $17 per bottle with freight free to capital cities (packed in 12's). They intend to expand the range of half bottles and depending on the enthusiasm, will take it up the tree to the Bogan and Old Vine. Now that's good news."

Henschke also do 1/2 bottles in their keyneton estate range,

TORB wrote:From tomorrows Tour Diary

"Reid (Kaesler Wines) has recognised the lack of availability of quality red wine in 375ml bottles and is doing something about it. The first wine released in half bottle was the 2006 Avignon. They produced 500 dozen and the wine is available from cellar door at $17 per bottle with freight free to capital cities (packed in 12's). They intend to expand the range of half bottles and depending on the enthusiasm, will take it up the tree to the Bogan and Old Vine. Now that's good news."

Fantastic i was just about to order some Great to know if all is well they will expand the program.........

I just noticed Spring Vale Winery from Tassie have started doing half size bottles. Their Pinot Noir would be worth looking at, as it does age.

Also, how will the restaurant owner react when you pull out your own wine to have with your meal.

wineworld wrote:Also, how will the restaurant owner react when you pull out your own wine to have with your meal.

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