Australia’s best known wine – Penfolds Grange – has become front page news in its homeland, possibly the most hyped wine in Australian history – and a case study in irony.
Despite a hefty price rise to A$395 (US$245) a bottle, the 36,000 bottles of the 1998 vintage which went on sale this week (Thursday) were almost all gone within hours with some buyers paying a premium of up to A$500.
The rush was aided by smart marketing and the description in the influential US magazine Wine Advocate of it being, “absolute perfection…an all time classic and another legend.”
The hype surrounding Grange also carried in its wake a range of other super premium wines, white, red and fortified, from Penfolds with prices of up to A$120 a bottle.
The irony is that Penfolds is part of the Southcorp wine group, which has been forced into a series of profit downgrades and a change of chief executives because of a policy of aggressive discounting.
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By GlobalData
