You clearly need to know something I don’t if you’re going to buy barrels of unreleased wine at auction. There must be a very good reason why a thinking person would pay $31,000 for a barrel of 1998 Mildara Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, a price which equates to $129.10 per bottle for the 20 cases purchased. Given that the 1997 vintage sells for around $20 per bottle retail, one can only surmise that the barrel sample must have tasted pretty special. Ditto that for the 1998 Majella Cabernet Sauvignon, which fetched more than $100 per bottle, around 500% of current rates. My advice, should you decide to go to next year’s Coonawarra Cabernet Celebration, is to get some kind soul to handcuff you to Doug Bowen’s tasting bench thirty minutes before the Barrel Series Auction commences, before throwing away the key.
