Wine critics not sold on 2008 Grange Shiraz

The 2008 vintage of Penfolds' flagship red wine, Grange Shiraz, will be released on May 2 but for most wine drinkers the event will inspire a yawn. It is a great vintage of a great wine, but the price has jumped 25 per cent in one leap, to $785 a bottle. Allegations of greed, profiteering and one-upmanship abound. With Torbreck's profound Barossa shiraz The Laird hitting $900 with its recent 2008 release, and Henschke's latest Hill of Grace 2008 costing $650, it's looking like a ''mine's bigger than yours'' race. They're all trumped by Chris Ringland Shiraz, which is more than $1000, although finding out the exact price is almost as hard as finding anyone who's drunk it. The '08 Grange is an outstanding vintage of Australia's most famous wine, arguably at the same level of the great '06, '04 and '96. I rate only a handful of vintages, such as '63 and '53, higher. It needs at least 10 years before you contemplate opening it, and will happily live past 50. But the price … Sadly, it makes the wine irrelevant to all but the extremely wealthy - and, some would say, show-offs and label-drinkers.