Penfold’s Grange dominated the 2007 wine auction list compiled by leading Australian auctioneer Langton’s.
With its top sale a bottle of 1951 Bin 1 for AUS$50,584 (US$44,516) Grange registered the top 10 prices, 15 of the top 20, and 48 of the top 100 during the year, the auction house said.
The 1951 was the first vintage of the famed wine which Langton’s describes as ‘the Australian wine industry’s equivalent of powered flight’, but ‘barely drinkable today’. It was followed by the 1957 Bin 113 Grange at AUS$14,950.
Breaking the Grange domination was another Penfolds, the 1962 Bin 60A Coonawarra Cabernet-Barossa Shiraz which recorded the 11th highest price of AUS$3,106.
Moss Wood, one of the founding wineries of Margaret River, posted a record price for a post-1970 bottle of Australian wine when AUS$2,301 was paid for a 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon, the 14th highest price of the year.
Its 1974 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon recorded a AUS$1,726 sale, the 16th highest price.
Langton’s said that a 1955 Wynn’s Coonawarra Estate Michael Shiraz (20th/AUS$1588) and a 1965 Lindemans Bin 3100 (24th/AUS$1398) saw meteoric price rises in 2007, ‘illustrating a dwindling supply of great old vintages and increasing interest in Australia’s wine heritage’, the Lindeman’s being ‘arguably the greatest Hunter wine ever made’.
These two wines had increased seven-fold in value during the past ten years.
‘While the rare Grange and Seppelt Centenary Liqueur Port market is narrow and sluggish, the volume and velocity of bidding for unique old Australian bottles is expected to increase in 2008,’ it said.
The top 20 wines were:
1. $50,854 1951 Penfolds Bin 1 Grange Hermitage, South Australia
2. $14,950 1957 Penfolds Bin 113 Grange Hermitage, South Australia
3. $12,995 1958 Penfolds Bin 47 Grange Hermitage, South Australia
4. $12,651 1953 Penfolds Bin 2 Grange Hermitage, South Australia
5. $12,650 1953 Penfolds Bin 9 Grange Cabernet, South Australia
6. $10,926 1952 Penfolds Bin 4 Grange Hermitage, South Australia
7. $10,926 1954 Penfolds Bin 11 Grange Hermitage, South Australia
8. $9,205 1956 Penfolds Bin 14 Grange Hermitage, South Australia
9. $7,935 1952 Penfolds Bin 9B Grange Cabernet, Barossa Valley
10. $3,451 1955 Penfolds Bin 95 Grange Shiraz, South Australia
11. $3,106 1962 Penfolds Bin 60A Coonawarra Cabernet-Barossa Valley Shiraz
12. $2,529 1960 Penfolds Bin 48 Grange Cabernet, Barossa Valley
13. $2,313 1959 Penfolds Bin 465 Grange Shiraz Cabernet, South Australia
14. $2,301 1973 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River
15. $1,899 1961 Penfolds Bin 95 Grange Shiraz, South Australia
16. $1,726 1974 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River
17. $1,725 1963 Penfolds Bin 511 Kalimna Cabernet Ouillade, Barossa Valley
18. $1,693 1959 Penfolds Bin 60/40 Grange Cabernet Shiraz, Barossa Valley
19. $1,611 1962 Penfolds Bin 95 Grange Shiraz, South Australia
20. $1,588 1955 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Michael Shiraz, Coonawarra.
Written by Chris Snow
