As winter descends, we are here to brighten your day with another fabulous online auction. It may be cold outside, but we are bringing warmth into your life with some vinous delights. There are some great value wines in this auction in good quantities - perfect for that mid-week dinner. With Reserves starting as low as $2, one is spoilt for choice with these soft, lovely food wines. If investment wines are what you’re looking for, this is the right place to be as we have 14 wines with scores of 99 or 19.5+/20 in this auction. There is no better time than now to buy for investments! Remember when bidding with us the wine is for sale as soon as it gets it’s first bid, no trying to guess what the Reserve is as we want to make your bidding experience a pleasurable one.
We start, as always, with the New Zealand Cabernet and Merlot dominant selection, where you will come across our first wine with a perfect score, 2013 Craggy Range Sophia. This wine is in fine company with some of New Zealand’s most celebrated producers such as Te Motu, Te Whau and Destiny Bay from Waiheke rubbing shoulders with some of the best from Hawkes Bay with Te Mata Coleraine and Awatea. Keep an eye out for South Auckland’s finest Puriri Hills and the now closed St Nesbit.
Our Pinot Noirs can be world class and we have several producers who are leading the charge with Felton Road and Valli from Central Otago. Heading north we come across the wines of Pegasus Bay and Pyramid Valley from North Canterbury. Jumping the Strait and over the Rimutaka’s we come to the picturesque township of Martinborough with Dry River and Ata Rangi. Plenty of delicious offers here.
Syrah’s are wonderful to drink at this time of year with their ‘big, soft and warm’ characters; perfect for sitting in front of the fireplace. We have some beauties with the Craggy Range Le Sol and Trinity Hill Homage - two of the best.
Speaking of chardonnay, we produce some pretty good ones here on the shaky isles and we have some of the best with Kumeu River, Te Mata Elston, Villa Maria Reserve, Prophet’s Rock, Pyramid Valley, Sam Harrop, Babich and Neudorf. As Jancis Robinson MW said in one of her columns from October 2018 ‘White burgundy apart, it's amazing how many of the greatest Chardonnays today are grown in the southern hemisphere.’ She did single New Zealand out in this column, especially Kumeu River, which is very high praise indeed!
Much to the pleasure of the Riesling geeks out there, of which I am definitely one, we have Chard Farm and Pyramid Valley.
We get back to more wines in the 99 points or above with the second only release of Penfolds Bin 60A also from the 2004 vintage in both bottle and magnum. Clarendon Hills Australis also features with a 99-point 2002 and the 100 point 2010. To round out this great selection we also have some outstanding value on offer from the likes of Dolan Family Wines Shiraz or Grant Burge GB56 Shiraz all with Reserves of $16 or less. Now there’s some cellar fillers for you.
Heading into the Old World we come across the gorgeous and delicate Rieslings from Germany with Egon Muller leading the charge.
Italy too is filled with jaw-droppers with Ornellaia, Sassicaia, Masetto and Antinori from Tuscany along with Gaja from Piedmont.
Spain has some great value, everyday drinkers and one is spoiled for choice with wines starting at $12 Reserves.
However the sparks really start flying with the 99+ point wines when we get to the French section. The Rhone probably comes out on top with 5 wines with perfect scores – 2 from Chateauneuf du Pape with the Beaucastel Hommage 1990 and the Mordoree La Plume du Peitre 2003 (100% Grenache) and 3 from the Northern Rhone with the 2003 Guigal Ex Voto Ermitage and La Mouline Cote Rotie and from Chapoutier the La Pavillon Ermitage 1995.
Bordeaux is equally rich with high scoring wines, including the 2010 Chateau Pontet Canet receiving a perfect score, 1959 Chateau Lafite Rothschild (19.5/20), and Chateaux Lafleur 2009, Montrose 2003 and Pavie 2003 all achieving a very creditable 99/100 scores.
As with all The Wine Auction Room auctions, you’ll find wines from all corners of the world – too numerous to mention here. Take your time to browse our catalogue and use the advanced filter to dive deep into the categories most interesting to you.
As with buying any second-hand goods there can be risk. This risk can be mitigated through reviewing widely available vintage reports and critic reviews and imposing realistic expectations. You will also notice that our photographs of each new lot are very detailed, helping you to inspect the wine from the comfort of your seat. The reward however, of a fine wine at its absolute peak of maturity, offering its full range of primary, secondary and tertiary flavours should be significant enough for most to negate the occasional disappointment. So, if the risk-reward scales are deemed favourable, we have a lovely selection of wines at various stages of maturity available in our current auction.
Happy browsing and please bid responsibly.
All bids are binding.
