The Auswine Forum

I've noticed this month a number of lots of Leasingham Classic Clare Shiraz magnums being sold at Langtons auctions, the 1999 & 2005 being marked as "direct from Leasingham Winery, Cellar Labels, No Capsules"

While I know Constellation are going through some pretty major cost cutting and are in the process of selling the winery, does anyone else think it's a little unusual for them to be dumping unlabelled bottles minus capsules on the auction market?

Cheers,
Ian

Yes, it does seem a bit odd.

Indeed.

Its not strange if the wine, or wines arew not going to be released. I think the current vintage CC FRS is the 98, so if they are dumping the magnums at Langtons, it may be because they have decided not to release those two vintages.

I seem to remember Brian saying he had tried some unreleased wines at the NWS that were not very good, not sure what vintages.

TORB wrote:Its not strange if the wine, or wines arew not going to be released. I think the current vintage CC FRS is the 98, so if they are dumping the magnums at Langtons, it may be because they have decided not to release those two vintages.

I seem to remember Brian saying he had tried some unreleased wines at the NWS that were not very good, not sure what vintages.

Ric, these are not the sparkling, they are the Classic Clare Shiraz, current release is possibly 2005, although I've seen 2006 listed at one site but don't remember the 2003 or 2004 being sold. The bottle of CC Shiraz 2002I had recently was showing a lot of brett and the Leasingham CC sparkling shiraz 97/98 have varying levels of brett. 2002 will be the next vintage of the CC Sparklig Shiraz.

TORB wrote:Its not strange if the wine, or wines arew not going to be released. I think the current vintage CC FRS is the 98, so if they are dumping the magnums at Langtons, it may be because they have decided not to release those two vintages.

I seem to remember Brian saying he had tried some unreleased wines at the NWS that were not very good, not sure what vintages.

They seem to want to have a bob each way (which is part of a general trend- Kemeny's hidden label, etc, etc), where they attract some kind of price premium because of the name, yet avoid damaging the reputation/price point of the wine.

Yet they are putting an inferior vintage (it seems) up amongst the community of wine consumers who are most responsible for setting the value of wines on the resale market, and clearly identifying it as classic Clare.

I wouldn't have thought that the small additional return they would get for it would be worth it. Why not just sell them as clare valley shiraz cleanskins through discount bottle shops?

Red Bigot wrote:

TORB wrote: I think the current vintage CC FRS is the 98, so if they are dumping the magnums at Langtons, it may be because they have decided not to release those two vintages.

I seem to remember Brian saying he had tried some unreleased wines at the NWS that were not very good, not sure what vintages.

Ric, these are not the sparkling, they are the Classic Clare Shiraz, current release is possibly 2005,

I guess I am not at my best at 4.30AM whilst waiting for Red to come back in after doing his urgent business.

Moral of the story - don't post when under the affluence of inkahol and don't post BC. That's before coffee.

I received 2 magnums of 1999 Classic Clare Shiraz as a bonus with a mixed case of Bin 56 and Bin 61 about this time last year.

The 1 magnum I opened (last year) was horribly corked, but could also have been brett affected.

Leasingham (kindly/obligatedly - if that's a word) replaced it with 2 bottles of 2005 Classic Clare Shiraz.

FWIW, they said that they did not have any remaining botles of the 1999 vintage.

Would Leasingham necessarily be the seller at Langtons - I note that there is no GST indicator?

Cheers

Scott

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Sean wrote:

Red Bigot wrote:The bottle of CC Shiraz 2002 I had recently was showing a lot of brett...

Brian, was it the only one you had? Otherwise what are you doing with the rest?

I have 5 left out of a 6 pk after drinking the first btl in June, 2007. (The cork was a leaker, but the wine was just fine.) I had been planning to drink the second btl next yr, but might open one and see what’s going on with them.

This was the third, 1st seemd OK, the next two increasingly bretty. Mine was a USA back lable and I only paid $18 for it, maybe got a bit warm somewhere along the line.

The remainder could be Christmas presents for people I don't like or slipped into a party when people have already had a few.

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Sean wrote:Brian, I got mine at mate’s rates (about $25) and they were delivered here on the back of a ute from Hardy’s. Another person who got the same shipment drank one btl back in 2007 as well and absolutely loved it and is keeping the rest. A third person left hers untouched in the box and has probably forgotten about them now.

Your mate charged you too much Sean, I got mine for under $20, USA back label.

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Sean wrote:Brian, mine don’t have an export label. But I have often seen other wines being sold locally with US or UK labels, Penfolds and d’Arenberg, for example.

Do you think these necessarily have been o/s or are they failed export orders and not been o/s?

It's usually not economical to return wines form o/s (some Granges were repatriated when demand wasn't there o/s and prices were higher in Aus). I'm pretty sure almost all of the export-labelled wines sold locally never left the country.