“Despite the fact that the standard bottle of Bin 180 sells for $1180 (such synchronicity!), the three-litre bottles were more than 15 times as expensive, with people being prepared to pay for the unique,” writes wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.

I get a few suggestions, most of them helpful rather than the ones involving, uh in polite terms, sex and travel. 

A good mate wanted to attend an event in Queanbeyan hosted by a large liquor retailer that would feature a tasting of this year’s Penfolds collection. There was a small fee associated with the event. 

We accepted, but it was postponed and I couldn’t attend the rescheduled event. Here I was, set to travel to Queanbeyan, compared with say the likes of Colin Hay, wine writer for the Drinks Business, who said in his article on the release:

“I was lucky enough to be invited to the Paris launch of the collection in a tiny restaurant near the Arc de Triomphe last month (June) and had the chance to talk through the portfolio with Peter Gago, Penfolds’ incomparable chief winemaker.”

This brought out every ounce of cupidity and avarice in my system, reinforced when I read the Weekend Australian Magazine’s new wine writer, Nick Ryan, say that he’d missed a meeting of wine writers in the Barossa so he had organised a catch-up tasting with chief winemaker Peter Gago at Penfolds’ Magill headquarters. 

I felt like one of those little kids that never gets picked for the team. A team of wine writers for which Ryan suggested a choice of collective nouns: a soak, a swirl or a cirrhosis. 

The intriguing thing is that I received another suggestion saying that I should write about the fact that it was fascinating how rare wines attract money and I should write that there was a limited-edition Penfolds wine released this year that sold for $18,000 a bottle. 

There were apparently only eight bottles made of the three-litre commemorative jeroboams of what has been labelled the Bin 180 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz 2021. 

These oversized bottles quickly sold out. This wine was released in 2024 to celebrate Penfold’s 180th anniversary. The interesting issue is that despite the fact that the standard bottle of Bin 180 sells for $1180 (such synchronicity!), the three-litre bottles were more than 15 times as expensive, with people being prepared to pay for the unique. 

I received another suggestion: surely I should feature in one of these columns the wonderful local wine maker who wows people with her excellent wine-appreciation course conducted under the name Pique Nique, the talented Emma Shaw? 

I followed this suggestion. I spoke with Emma and she kindly sent me a copy of her booklet that is a tasting guide to the Canberra region. It does the job well. I was especially intrigued by her “wine rules”, the first of which is “choose quality over quantity”, a message that will warm the cockles of the Penfolds’ heart. 

“Consciously or unconsciously most of us adhere to what is expected of our role because we realise our social success depends on this. Some may refuse to play this game, but in the end they are marginalised and forced to play the outsider role, with limited options and decreasing freedom as they get older.” –Robert Greene