Rick Kinzbrunner, owner and winemaker of the tiny northeast Victorian vineyard of Giaconda, whose Chardonnay is amongst Australia’s finest, rarest and most sought-after, has offered virtually his entire year 2000 release of wines for sale by tender over the Internet. What sets this move apart from the many wineries to have adopted the Internet as a means of attracting and securing sales is that Giaconda’s wine typically sells out in milliseconds and that only a minuscule volume has been left for retailers and restaurants. However many small Australian wineries can be expected to follow this lead, especially since the Federal Government offers substantial tax rebates to small wineries which sell directly to their customer base. What prompted Kinzbrunner to take this innovative approach was that he has three times as many individuals on his mailing-list than he has half-dozen cases to sell and that he is keen for wine buyers outside Australia to have access to his wine. He is keen to spend less time on the telephone explaining to people why they might not be able to get hold of his wine. He receives dozens of calls each week and is rather looking forward to spending more time actually caring for his vineyards and his wine. So, for the first time ever, Wine Spectator readers outside Australia have an opportunity to discover the wine rated by many as Australia’s most complex and Burgundian Chardonnays, one of its finest and most interesting Pinot Noirs, an unusually restrained and elegant red blend of Bordeaux varieties and a Shiraz with almost flagrant stylistic connections to the northern Rhone. The laconic Kinzbrunner is keen to stress that unlike an auction site, where price is the only factor, he will retain a discretionary say over the final allocation of his wines, saying that people who place ‘sensible’ bids have a good chance of coming through. While expensive in Australia, Giaconda’s wines are nowhere near the price of the more sought-after Californian wineries. Interested buyers should visit Giaconda’s website at www.giaconda.com.au and place their tenders by the close of September this year.
