How much is too much for great Australian Chardonnay?
Forgive my rhetoric, but please play along with me here. What’s your dollar boundary on Aussie Chardonnay? Is it different compared to something fancy and French?
Obviously, any answer is couched in personal value equations (if I were a billionaire, I’d buy a lot more Montrachet), but I want to know the answer anyway.
More importantly, I’m asking because wines like the Oakridge The Apex Twin Chardonnay 2023 pose these questions, and I’ve already had an interesting response. If you follow my Instagram post (here), you can see that Luke Steele provocatively commented how he thought that it was ‘farcical that during a cost of living and wine industry existential crisis, that the Endeavour group think that releasing a wine at such a price point is a great idea’.
But what about you? Do you think $300 is indeed farcical pricing? If so, how much would be more reasonable?
Maybe I’ve been conditioned by tasting too much 2023 Burgundy (where Corton Charlemagne starts at $300 a bottle and some), but I don’t have a problem with this new Oakridge super wine landing at $300 at all. Further, Corton is a great example because I tasted a shedload of Corton (in situ at Aloxe-Corton for authenticity) a few weeks back that didn’t come close in absolute quality to this brilliant Oakridge Chardonnay…
Further, compared to peers like Giaconda (the 2022 is a $500+ proposition in retail or auction land) or a $180 Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay, it’s not exactly exorbitant dollars. Certainly a more attractive option than half a bottle of Levantine Hill Optume at $600 for that matter (and let’s not talk about Cloudburst).
Subscribe to continue reading
Subscribe to get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content.
P.S. Have you subscribed to the latest emails yet?
Choose from instant, daily or weekly updates. It's not an everyday thing, but a free way to get updates fast and no spam (ever).
Help keep this site paywall free – donate here
