According to Langton’s, the demand for fine wine has increased since COVID-19 restrictions took place in late March, with a steep increase in the number of customers obtaining online.

A wine collector recently paid just over Є61,000 (AU$103,000) for a single bottle of 1951 Penfolds Bin 1 Grange; the highest price ever paid for a bottle of Australian wine. The previous record was just over Є48,000.

Grange is Australia’s most famous and respected wine with a reputation for superb fruit complexity and flavour richness.

The early 1950s Penfolds Grange wines are very rare, so collectors will snap these up when they can in order to complete their sets of every vintage of these incredible wines. The 1951 Penfolds Grange truly represents the beginning of modern Australian wine,” said Langton’s Head of Auctions Tamara Grischy.

Combining traditional Australian techniques, alongside inspiration from Europe and precision winemaking practices developed at Penfolds, Chief Winemaker Max Schubert made his first experimental wine, Grange in 1951, creating a fascinating history for the brand.

Using ground breaking technology developed by Penfolds scientist Dr Ray Beckwith, in which wine could be accurately controlled and stabilised, Shubert established the unique wine based on warm climate shiraz fruit, barrel fermented at the end of vinification and matured in American oak hogsheads. 

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Last December, a set of Penfolds Grange from 1951 to 2015 was sold for Є224,355 (AU$372,800). The record comes just two days after 246 bottles of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) – the Burgundian wine widely considered the world’s greatest wine, sold at auction from James Halliday’s cellar.

“The early 1950s Penfolds Grange wines are very rare, so collectors will snap these up when they can in order to complete their sets of every vintage of these incredible wines. The 1951 Penfolds Grange truly represents the beginning of modern Australian wine,” said Langton’s Head of Auctions Tamara Grischy.

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“With many of us still unable to visit our favourite restaurants or travel to cellar doors, new and existing clients have instead immersed themselves in the world of fine wine from the comfort of their homes” – Langton’s General Manager Jeremy Parham.

Learn more at Penfolds Wines.

Images: supplied by Penfolds and Langtons

by Amanda Johnstone