Re-corking clinics let collectors perform 'health checks' on vintage wines

Raising an exceptional wine, it seems, has many parallels with raising an exceptional adult. At its essence, it requires stability to ensure the precious item brought into a family in its infancy does not bloom into a petulant, unsalvageable teenager.

It then requires nurturing to mature with each passing year and to peak in adulthood, in some cases into its sixth decade.

The chief winemaker at the South Australhian label Penfolds, Peter Gago, knows this well.

"Great wine rises slowly, hits a quality peak, then plateaus," he says.

"It remains there for decades but all wines go into a decline phase and everyone is trying to guess that point.

"They often get it wrong."

Gago and his team of Barossa Valley winemakers were at the Hilton in Brisbane last week to conduct their biennial re-corking clinics, which allow collectors to perform "health checks" on their vintage wines.

The gathering was the first in this year's series being held across Australia, in which an estimated 10,000 bottles will be opened, assessed and re-corked.

At the events, winemakers check the wines for quality by uncorking the bottle, giving the owner a taste and topping up the bottle with the same wine of the latest vintage, if required, then re-corking.

It's a process that can be undertaken only once per bottle.

With some bottles of Grange Hermitage fetching up to $50,000 at auction, the experience can be nerve-wracking - so much so that counselling is provided.

If an owner brings their wine in for assessment and it is declared to be past its peak, it is deemed virtually worthless.

But the majority of customers are not in it for the money, Gago says.

"For many people ... it is a drinking investment," he says.

"They might swap a bottle of wine but they would never, ever sell one."

Collectors who have stored their bottles well are sent away with instructions to continue storing them in the same way and with advice on when the wine may be best to drink.

Those wines that do not "pass" the test receive a white dot and are re-corked. Their owners are sent home with instructions to drink now.

"Some people leave happier with white dots because they can drink it now," he says.

Proper storage is central to avoiding degradation, Gago says. He recommends cellaring wine between 13 and 15 degrees Celsius, with at least 80 per cent relative humidity and no light, vibration or background odours.

A common error Australians make is to move their wine: travel with it, post it overseas or move with it.

"That does an awful lot of damage," he says.

Wines must be at least 15 years old to be assessed at the clinics but collectors can bring along anything from a top-end Grange Hermitage to a Bin 707, RWT, St Henri or a Konunga Hill, Gago says. Many of the wines seen so far this year were made in the 1960s.

The company's reputation for bold reds has attracted a wide-ranging clientele - from billionaires in America, China and Europe to mum and dad collectors.

"You see parents bringing in their children [to the clinics and] grandparents bringing grandchildren," he says.

"A lot of parents now buy a six-pack of Grange when their children are born to have at their 21st.

"Some come in with one treasured bottle, others come in with six dozen, 10 dozen [or] two dozen."

Whatever the status of the collector, most people tend to covet their wine rather than drink it.

"The quote everyone is guilty of is, 'I'm waiting for the right opportunity'," Gago says.

"So you say to them, 'If you continue to do that, your family will be pouring this wine at your wake'.

"If there's a major objective of these clinics, it's getting people to drink these wines."

Penfolds re-corking clinics: the facts

The 2014 Penfolds re-corking clinics will assess about 10,000 bottles across Australia this year.

In early August, winemakers met with 320 people at the first clinic in Brisbane to perform "health checks" on more than 1400 bottles of Penfolds wine, aged 15 years or older, over two days.

The clinics, exclusive to Penfolds, occur once every two years and have been running since 1991.

2014 Penfolds re-corking clinic dates

■ Sydney, Shangri-La Hotel, August 19-21
■ Melbourne, Crown Metropol, September 2-4
■ Perth, Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, September 17-18
■ Adelaide, National Wine Centre, September 30-October 1