WINE & ACCESSORIES

Top Australian Wines To Keep

Penfolds Grange continues to be the most collected wine label in the country.

One of Australia's largest wine cellaring companies, Wine Ark reviewed three million plus bottles stored by their member base in developing the top 50 wines Australians love to keep. The most popular wine of each variety was given an award.

Long consider wine flavours such as pepper or butter may be more scientific than mere snobbery.

While the number.1 label may not be surprising to many, the list yielded some unexpected results with smaller wineries including Torbreck, in the Barossa Valley and Cullen, from the Margaret River region, a giving the well established wine brands a run for their money.

Jeremy Oliver, who produces his popular annual wine guide, said this was an indication of the growing maturity of the Australian consumer. Of particularly note was Lake's Folly. This tiny Hunter Valley wine maker was awarded the most popular cabernet, whcih remains one of the leading wine varieties produced in the Australia.

Other category winners included Mount Mary Pinot Noir, Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay, Grosset Polish Hill reisling and Tyrell's Vat 1 semillon.

He said "There was a good mix of winners between the big companies like Foster's, to small to medium sized and tiny," And further stated. "I think that's a surprise, I thought that all the category winners would be from the bigger ones. It shows how mature the market is."

Oliver said the range of prices from the top 50 brands surprised him, ranging from $15 to $25 for the Seppelt Chalambar Shiraz (in 32nd place) to the over $500+ of Penfolds Grange.

"Wynns Black Label Coonawarra (cabernet sauvignon) you would expect to see quite high in that list, and it was (in sixth place), and it is quite an cheap wine and you could argue quite underpriced," he said.

"This list flies in the face of what a number of marketers think and price has been a big surprise. What people choose to store isn't a major factor."

Dean Taylor, Wine Ark chief executive stated that his 8,000 members ranged from serious collectors with wine collections of $1 million plus worth of wine stored to families cellaring the a single bottle of Grange upon their child's birth..

While many continue to store Penfolds Grange (since its the 2006 survey), it was the 2nd most popular wine this year, second only to Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz blend.

He said "Because the Grange is so expensive a lot of people buy it and don't drink it". I think that's one of the reasons why it is the most popular because people have it in their cellar but haven't found the opportunity to drink it."

The volume of excellent shirazes that can be bought at a reasonable price surprised Oliver.

Oliver states "Grange costs a lot of money to put away". As consumers know the right wine they want to collect, they confident in the decsion to large amounts of money buying these wines. I thought maybe a Penfolds Bin 28, which you can get for a fraction of the price, would be more popular than Grange."

Eight white wines appeared in the top 50 including Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay, Grosset Polish Hill, Petaluma Hanlin Hill Riesling, Tyrell's Wines Vat 1 Hunter Semillon, Grosset Springvale Watervale Riesling, De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Semillon and the Giaconda Chardonnay..

Other facts: South Australia accounted for 60 per cent of wines making the list. Shiraz was the most collected wine, with 46 per cent. The most popular producer with eight of the top 50 wines was Penfolds. The most improved was Yarra Yering's Dry Red No 1, up 64 places.