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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.

Traditional wine flavours such as butter or pepper may actually have more scientific metric rather than mere snobbery.

While the No.1 label may expected by many, the list provided some surprising results with lesser known wineries such as Torbreck (Barossa Valley) and Cullen (Margaret River) providing the larger wine brands some healthy competition.

Jeremy Oliver, who wirites the ever popular annual wine guide, said this shows the of the increasing maturity of Australian wine drinkers. 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 has become.”

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..

Taylor states, cellaring of Grange has grown since its the 2006 survey, recordeding this year’s number two position while Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz blend was in the number 1 slot.

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.”

Oliver was surprised by this result given the numerous number of excellent shirazes available at a lower price..

“Grange costs a lot of money to put away” Oliver says. Customers are are confident about the large amounts of money they’re investing in wine as it is the particular wine they want to store. 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.

It’s funny how when it comes to choosing our wine we are all so different.

Some people are real wine snobs and know exactly what they are looking for, and don’t settle for anything less.  They don’t mind how expensive the bottle is, and are more than happy to spend over a hundred pounds on a bottle.

Other people may choose a wine just for the colour and packaging on the bottle. I will admit that some wines are nicely packaged, but I wouldn’t choose my wine just because the bottle looks pretty.

A lot of people won’t drink red wine because it gives them a throbbing headache the next morning. Perhaps this could be because they have drunk too much!!

I can’t drink white or rose wine, unless it happens to be fizzy.   A favourite Spanish Wine that fits into this category is the classic Cava. I love a nice glass of Cava, infact I actually prefer it to Champagne.   If you can get your hands on a decent bottle of Vintage Cava then you really can’t go wrong. In our home it’s always a favourite drink when we are having a bit of a family celebration.

I also love a nice glass of red wine. Funnily enough though I absolutely love my red wine served chilled and the colder the better.   I can hear the cries of wine snobs all over the place crying out you can’t chill red wine, but that’s what I like to do and if I enjoy it that way, then that’s how I am going to drink it.   A good example of a nice bottle of red is a Cabernet Sauvignon.  This is a beautiful Chilean Wine that tastes superb.

I will say that I am not particularly fond of French Wine. I think it’s due to the fact that I’m not keen on the French full stop, so I tend not to buy their wine!!

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American Cellars Wine Club
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