The Auswine Forum

We have been back from our 3,000km trip through NSW, ACT, VIC and SA wine country for a few weeks now and I thought I would do a little internet searching for some of the wines we could only bring back in small quantity, most were just a bottle or two among the two doz bottles we brought back.

Miranda's favorite dessert wine is Seppeltfield Tokay but its simply not available in the USA (at the present) so I chased up a few others, and found Campbells 'Isabella' Rare Tokay for $39.99USD or $24.99USD in 6-pack. Seeing as how we paid around $100AUD (around $64USD) each for a couple of bottles of this just a few weeks ago I'd say a more than 50% price reduction is a steal.

Anyone else scored well recently?

Mike

Agree - that is a steal. I'd be stocking up big time on that one. And if you could just send over three dozen to me, I'd be very popular with my partner.

Refer Langmeil Freedom thread.

USD 8 per bottle for 2004 Bin 28 (back in July when the Aussie peso was almost at parity). I should have bought more...

Mike Hawkins wrote:USD 8 per bottle for 2004 Bin 28 (back in July when the Aussie peso was almost at parity). I should have bought more...

Wouldn't it be cheaper now that our peso is worth less (worthless?)?

got 05 henschke keyneton estate euphorium for 28.45 a pop recently. it's a real steal i reckon.

I managed to score some mislabelled 2006 JC Steingarten Riesling for $3 a bottle.

Maybe we should think about using the word "bargain" instead of "steal". Wouldn't want the ethics and morality brigade to swing into action.

Steingarten Riesling for A$3 is amazing.

Not my bargains unfortunately but when I was away my friend found the De Bortoli Noble One for C$10/bottle. And he didn't buy them all, only two!

Another friend found '03 Pichon Lalande and '03 Lynch Bages for about C$25/bottle.

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

A "coals to Newcastle" story. Picked up some 2002 Penfolds St. Henri while I was in the US in July for US$37 a bottle. Bought a couple to enjoy while in Colorado with the family, and actually brought back 3 bottles to Adelaide for my cellar. Hard to believe, isn't it? Also bought my brother a six-pack of Bin 389 since they were going for US$24 a bottle. Keep in mind, this was when the Aussie dollar was bringing .98$US.

There were a number of other bargains as well including 2005 Ata Rangi Pinot Noir for US$36.

But the best deal of all was in Auckland as we were in transit back to Australia in late July. Ata Rangi Pinot Noir and Martinborough Pinot Noir were discounted 20% for all Australian buyers (I have no idea why) and the cost was effectively AUS$36 per bottle. Fortunately, my wife had not used her allocation so we got three more bottles.

If not for Customs limits I would have bought a dozen of each. Hard to beat value.

Tristram Shandy

Tristram Shandy wrote:If not for Customs limits I would have bought a dozen of each.

Tristram Shandy

Tristam,

It does pay to be a little bolder. When my wife and I flew into Sydney in late Oct we had a box with a dozen bottles in it as checked luggage. We declared it to Customs and were taken to a guy behind a counter who wanted to know how much wine we had, alcohol content and value. After tapping away for 5 minutes on his computer he said he was inclined to let us go. The only advice was to next time split the volume of wine between our two customs forms rather than list it on one form!

Returning to the USA it was much easier. They require one customs form per family and the amount of alcohol allowed is not listed on the form so you can feign ignorance if you want. When asked what was in the two boxes we had we said wine. There was a brief discussion about alcohol and value and then we were let go because as the officer said the tax involved would be small. The advice? Next time try to bring in less!

From my vantage point, it pays to let your wife do most of the talking.

Mike

A friend of mine in London was out on the piss during daylight hours with another friend who's a wine merchant. While buying cigarettes in a dodgy corner shop/off licence they spotted a couple of dusty magnums of vintage Bollinger (can't recall the year I'm afraid) on a high shelf for GBP20 each. Chris (the wine merchant) nearly fainted, and bought all five they had (a few were found in storage) securing another tenner off into the bargain.

KMP wrote:

Tristram Shandy wrote:If not for Customs limits I would have bought a dozen of each.

Tristram Shandy

Tristam,

It does pay to be a little bolder. When my wife and I flew into Sydney in late Oct we had a box with a dozen bottles in it as checked luggage. We declared it to Customs and were taken to a guy behind a counter who wanted to know how much wine we had, alcohol content and value. After tapping away for 5 minutes on his computer he said he was inclined to let us go. The only advice was to next time split the volume of wine between our two customs forms rather than list it on one form!

Returning to the USA it was much easier. They require one customs form per family and the amount of alcohol allowed is not listed on the form so you can feign ignorance if you want. When asked what was in the two boxes we had we said wine. There was a brief discussion about alcohol and value and then we were let go because as the officer said the tax involved would be small. The advice? Next time try to bring in less!

From my vantage point, it paids to let your wife do most of the talking.

Mike

My partner and I went to NZ this yr and came back with over a dozen wines The customs guy asked how much the wine was worth, my response was 'about $10 a bottle' and we settled for a $20 customs bill

ACG wrote:My partner and I went to NZ this yr and came back with over a dozen wines The customs guy asked how much the wine was worth, my response was 'about $10 a bottle' and we settled for a $20 customs bill

Yep, that would work for me. I think we said $15-20 per bottle.

Mike