The money or the Grange?
At $785 per bottle is the new release of Penfold's Grange worth it? Wine experts respond.
Jeni Port, wine writer
Yes, I do have Grange in my cellar but will I buy the just-released 2008 vintage? No.
I like Grange but only in the better years and while the 2008 falls into that category I do not see value in paying this year's asking price of $785 a bottle. The cynic in me chafes at two price rises for the wine in the lead-up to the May 2 release, the latest reportedly following a 100-point score from The Wine Advocate. No doubt the score will fuel excitement in Asian markets for the wine. Maybe an $888 price tag isn't too far away? But I digress.
With my $785 I'm going to buy a wine I have been lusting over since I tasted it in March - Luciano Sandrone* 2002 Barolo Le Vigne - and, at $202 a bottle retail, I'll score three bottles and still have change left over to snatch a few of Luciano's 2010 Valmaggiore Nebbiolo d'Alba ($71). Both wines sported the kind of fleshy, earthy generosity that barolo so effortlessly unleashes in a glass. Honest and totally accessible, too.
* Luciano Sandrone wines are imported by Bibendum Wine Co.
Nick Stock, editor, The Age/Sydney Morning Herald Good Wine Guide 2013
I'm looking for guaranteed pleasure when spending up big on wine and, in keeping with the luxury theme, I'd head straight to the most satisfying and consistently great name in champagne, Champagne Krug.
For the same money as just one bottle of '08 Grange ($785) I'd buy three bottles of NV (or multivintage, as they prefer to call it) Krug Grande Cuvee and chill one down ready to celebrate Mothers' Day.
Like Grange, Krug Grande Cuvee is an amalgam of many superior individual vineyard parcels (199 of them in the 2012-based blend) and it shares the same ability to age magnificently.
Not all champagne is made for the long haul, but Krug is not just any champagne. I'm a huge fan of Krug Grande Cuvee that's been carefully cellared. I reckon it is at its best given a good 15 years from the time of release.
Ralph Kyte-Powell, wine critic
One bottle of Grange at $785? Six bottles of Giaconda Shiraz? Maybe a dozen bottles of By Farr Shiraz? An easy decision to make.