“Mr Ferrari, your 348ts has the handling of a Harrier jump-jet, the unwillingness to stand still of a Ben Johnson riddled with steroids, and reveals curves and lines that would have shocked generations past. Driving it is to exert only a temporary control of a raging, wild beast and the excitement never, ever leaves you. The car is close to the ultimate driving challenge, yet I will only give it four stars out of five”. “Why?” “The price, man! How can the average Joe afford it?” Ridiculous. To apply that sort of logic, a Mont Blanc pen would rate three and a half stars, Chanel No 5 a possible four and a Hugo Boss reefer about the same. Crazy. Somehow wine tends to be treated differently. These days it is not good enough for a wine, especially an Australian wine, just to be first-rate. To be given its full due in much of the wine press it must also be under $15, preferably under $10. How often do you read: “Well, it’s close to perfect as a wine, but since it’s above $20 a bottle I’m going to dock it a star and only give it four”. The old cultural cringe is hard to shake. How dare an Australian wine be expensive! It beats me why certain wine critics have to be price surveillance officers as well. Why can’t they simply provide an accurate interpretation of quality, then leave the readers to decide how they spend their budget? Given the facts in an objective fashion, the wine buyers should be able to make up their own minds how to spend their own wine dollars. I think the Australian wine consumer is perfectly able to figure that if in a single article a $45 wine is rated at five stars and another at $6 is given three, then the six dollar wine might well be worthy of attention. Or is it true that given the advertising-driven nature of certain wine publications, that the wine companies themselves won’t part with their advertising dollar unless their wines are rated with half the Milky Way? Why are more expensive wines discriminated against? Not only is there a basic dishonesty about reporting wine under the banner of consumer affairs, but the very practice demeans the growing number of truly outstanding Australian wines which strive for excellence on a world scale. On a true quality-for-money basis, many are actually very cheap, provided you’re prepared to glance over the fence and see where their competition is priced at. Many wines priced in the upper echelons of the domestic market actually represent genuine bargains on an international scale. It’s no longer headline-grabbing news whenever Australian wines regularly outpoint their perceived higher-quality European counterparts, which are often priced several times as much. But such are the impressions that some of our critics give that you could be forgiven for inferring these same wines are no better than a good, sound, honest and commercial wine like Galway Hermitage, whose cheap price tag easily fits into the acceptable range. Of course, at first glance, a Bannockburn or Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay looks expensive at $28 and $41 per bottle. They look even worse when compared directly to the many high-volume South Australian chardonnays made by the big firms, most of which have pleasing fruit and oak flavours, no detectable flaws, but offer all the individuality, character and distinction of a litre of milk. Especially when these perfectly acceptable commercial wines ask only $7 per bottle. Yet that same Bannockburn Chardonnay is positively bargain basement when stacked up to a perfectly good and individual Meursault 1989, priced at $80 per bottle. Let’s be honest – the Bannockburn is better. At around a third of the price of its French competitor, and made with similar philosophy and technique, it’s the bargain of the decade. Personally speaking, I’m delighted that Australia continues to produce wine unashamedly targeted at the best the world can make. Those who do so often make large investments, take huge risks and acquire enormous expertise. Their wines are frequently brilliant, but not always so. Their prices, invariably, are much higher than average. So, to the makers of Bannockburn Chardonnay and Pinot Noir; Chateau Tahbilk Old Vines Shiraz; Giaconda Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon; Henschke Hill of Grace; Howard Park Cabernet Sauvignon; Jim Barry’s The Armagh; Mount Mary Cabernets, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir; Petaluma Coonawarra and Chardonnay; Pierro Chardonnay and Rosemount Roxburgh Chardonnay, the very best of luck. Your efforts at excellence are raising the standards of the rest and are bringing genuine Australian quality to worldwide attention. And to Penfolds, who with Grange Hermitage were the first Australians to price a “domestic” wine at international rates, sincere congratulations. I can’t afford to drink it often, but I won’t pretend it’s not worth it when I do.
