Top Australian Wine Prices For 2009

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12th January 2010, 07:22pm - Views: 909





People Feature LANGTONS WINE ONLINE 1 image

“Claret for boys, port for men, shiraz for heroes”


Penfolds, Chris Ringland Shiraz, classic Hunter Valley and Barossa Shiraz were Australia’s top

performing wines at auction in 2009.


Penfolds Grange and rare Penfolds experimental wines continue to dominate the Australian

secondary wine market. Although 1951 Penfolds Bin 1 Grange, arguably the most important

Australian wine of the 20th Century, fetched $43,701 (#1), it was 1957 Penfolds St Henri , that

created the headlines in 2009. At $8108.65 (#4), it is the highest price ever paid for a bottle of

Australian wine on the fine and rare auction market with the exception of Grange. Remarkably it

also out-performed the astonishingly rare 1958 Hill of Grace ($6325 #5).  

The enigmatic Chris Ringland Barossa Shiraz, first “discovered” by the American critic Robert Parker

during the 1990s, was the highest individual ranking performer after Penfolds Grange. Ten vintages

fell within the top 50 performing Australian wines at auction and represented half of the top 20

rankings of Australian wine (excluding Penfolds).  This stunning result further adds weight to the

Chris Ringland Shiraz story; once regarded as a “cult” wine it is increasingly seen worldwide as one of

Australia’s greatest reds. Chris Ringland, like Russel l Crowe and Mel Gibson, was born in New

Zealand. The vines, however, are pre-phylloxera Shiraz of more ancient material!

The rare Australian wine market boomed during 2009 with some wines increasing in value by over

300%. Classic mature vintages of Hunter Valley Shiraz performed exquisitely.  1954 McWilliam’s

Mount Pleasant Robert Hermitage (Shiraz), one of Maurice O’Shea’s significant wines achieved

$3174.70 (#13).  It was the second highest ranked Australian performer (excluding Penfolds).  1965

Lindemans Bin 3100 Hunter River Hermitage (#18)and sibling 1965 Bin 3110 (#20) also fetched

historically high values in 2009. 1986 Brokenwood Graveyard Hunter Valley Shiraz, arguably the

finest Australian red wine made in this watershed year, reached $801. Andrew Caillard, MW, fine

wine principal at Langton’s said “This is a great achievement for it acknowledges and underpins the

extraordinary history and potential of Hunter Valley Shiraz.”

Stewart Langton, managing director, said “Australian wine auction market prices were relatively

buoyant in 2009. Great and rare vintages performed well above expectations reflecting the

incendiary relationship between scarcity and demand.”




END

Enquiries

Stewart Langton               0414 314 311       email     stewartl@langtons.com.au

Andrew Caillard, MW     0418 272 293       email     andrewc@langtons.com.au






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