Big money tipped to pour into highly collectable Barossa wine auction

The biennial Barossa Wine Auction will add a Sydney event to the roster for the first time in April, with collections expected to tempt cashed-up bidders.

Penfolds senior winemaker Steph Dutton with a six litre bottle of Grange Hermitage which will be auctioned at the April 2021 Barossa Wine Auction. Supplied

The biennial Barossa Wine Auction will add a Sydney event to the roster for the first time in April, with an imperial of Penfolds Grange and highly-collectable 100-point collections expected to tempt cashed-up bidders.

The auctions, run by Langton’s in association with the Barossa Grape and Wine Association, will also for the first time use technology developed by Adelaide-based wine-tech company Cellr, to validate the provenance of the wines, which are all supplied direct from the producers.

Langton’s head of auctions Tamara Grischy said three auctions would be held this year, with the usual Barossa event to be held at Chateau Tanunda on April 16, the Sydney auction on April 29, and an online auction to run until 6pm, on May 2.

All catalogues open for online bidding on April 2.

Ms Grischy said with the threat of borders closing, Langton’s decided to run a Sydney event as well this year — an idea which had been on the cards for some time.

Attendees at the Barossa event will have Eden Valley Riesling and oysters on arrival, while the Sydney event is an evening affair with an associated dinner.

Notable bottles on offer include a 6-litre “imperial” bottle of 2016 Penfolds Grange, and an 18l bottle of the 2018 Thorn-Clarke Ron Thorn Single Vineyard Shiraz from the St Kitts vineyard.

The Grange is expected to bring in $50,000-$70,000 while the Thorn-Clarke is appraised at $4000-$5000.

Ms Grischy said with the wine coming direct from the producers, the quality was unimpeachable.

“Provenance is absolutely guaranteed. In the past we would create these authentication stickers which we would label on to each of the bottles, they would all have their own codes,’’ she said.

“This year we are using Cellr, so we’re stepping it up.’’

Cellr has developed technology which can embed “digital birth certificates” in wine closures, as well as near-field communication labelling solutions which can be used to track and verify wine provenance.

Ms Grischy said the majority of the wines being auctioned were “really hard to find”.

“You usually can’t access them out in the retail market. We make sure when we’re curating the lots from the wineries that that is the case to make it special and unique.

“There’s also lots of large formats. Once of the highlights in the Barossa auction is the imperial of Grange 2016, and then in Sydney there’s an imperial of Rockford Basket Press.

“Those kinds of formats you don’t see regularly.’’

There were also vertical formats of back vintages, and one of the standouts for Ms Grischy was a collection of 100-point wines.

“We’ve managed to get nine bottles, we expect $7000-plus for that,’’ she said.

“It includes your RunRig, your Laird (both Torbreck), your Grange, Greenock Creek Roennfeldt Road, Henschke Hill of Grace and of course the Seppeltsfield 100 year old (Para Vintage Tawny).

“That’s definitely a highlight and something we haven’t done in the past.’’

Ms Grischy said you didn’t have to be bidding at the top end of the range to get some exceptional wines however, with a RieslingFreak old back vintage vertical providing something special at a lower price point.

There are also a handful of experiences going under the hammer, including a VIP tour of the Barossa by helicopter, topped off with a tasting of your birth year tawny from the barrel at Seppeltsfield.

Originally published as Big money tipped to pour into highly collectable Barossa wine auction