Wine clinics give reds a health check

Johannes Pauw and his father Rik arrive at the Penfolds re-corking clinic at Sydney's Intercontinental Hotel filled with nerves and anticipation.

Would they be walking out with the official nod to keep cellaring the dozen bottles of 1981 Grange Rik bought for his son? Or would they be lumped with the dreaded white dot indicating the bottles were on the turn. This would give them the green light to drink them but it isn't exactly how Johannes had anticipated consuming this prized gift from his dad.

Penfolds runs the wine re-corking clinics for customers with bottles aged 15 years or older. It doesn't matter if it's a bottle of Grange, of which the current vintage retails for around $600, or a $13 bottle of Koonunga Hill. It's a chance for wine collectors and connoisseurs to have expert winemakers perform a health check on their prized bottles and learn a bit about how wine ages in the process.

Boom or bust

Collecting Grange can be quite a money earner, depending on the quality of the wine and the condition of the bottle. Last September a bottle of the 1951 Grange – the first ever vintage of this wine therefore a rare collectors item – sold for $43,700 at auction. At the same event, a collection spanning 40 vintages sold for $138,000.

So getting an A on the re-corking scorecard can be serious business for some.

According to senior winemaker Andrew Baldwin, the clinics are attended by a good mix of people from serious collectors keeping tabs on their investment to “mums and dads” who have one or two bottles they are keeping for a special occasion.

“We are trying to assess what they really want to do with them, are they hard core collectors that want to move them on,” Baldwin said of the clinics.

“If that's the case you're being tough on them, you have to be because if you're buying a bottle of wine that's $600 to $1000 or $7500 you want it to be the best it possibly can be for that vintage.”

The health check

To start, Baldwin enquires about how the bottle was stored and how it came to be in the owner's possession. He never ceases to be surprised or touched by people's stories.

A recent highlight came from a Brisbane clinic where someone bought in a 375ml bottle of 1903 St Henri still wrapped in straw and in its original sleeve.

At a Sydney clinic he had to manage the expectations of a recently widowed woman who turned up with a bottle owned by her late husband.

“The wine was fine and she was really, really happy but I'm not sure how that would have ended up if we'd had to tell her the wine was not fine,” Baldwin said. “There's great stories and that's what it's all about.”

Next Baldwin looks at the level of the wine in the bottle to determine if it's a good candidate for re-corking or whether it is best to wait. If he proceeds, the bottle is opened and the wine tasted and assessed. It's then topped up with the current vintage of the same wine and re-corked. If it passes, Baldwin signs a certificate and sticks it on the back of the bottle. If it fails, it receives a white dot.

This was what Johannes Pauw was dreading when he arrived at the clinic. The Erskineville resident was given the dozen bottles of 1981 Grange - his year of birth -by his dad Rik for his 21st birthday. Rik had been secretly cellaring them for his son, and even whisked them away again after the birthday celebrations.

They took two bottles in to be tested, but because of the fantastic quality of the first one, they decided to leave the second sealed.

Both released an audible sigh of relief when the tester gave them the thumbs up.

“I was trusting in dad's cellaring and the cellar I guess but we hadn't touched them so I figured they'd be pretty good but this is a better result than I was thinking, it's absolutely wonderful,” Johannes said.

Geoff Barnum had a mixed result at the clinic but, fearing the worst, he was still very happy with the result.

He bought along four bottles, a 1971 and 1989 Grange and two bottles of the 1995 St Henri.

“The Grange is probably good for a few more years, the '71 is a recognised 100 out of 100 Grange and the others are probably drink now, maybe we might look at Christmas, we'll see,” Barnum said.

“Certainly with the '71 I was greatly relieved [that it passed the health check].

“I had visions of it being poured down the sink.”

Penfolds holds re-corking clinics in Australia, the US, Canada and parts of Asia. Upcoming clinics will be held in Melbourne on September 8 and 9 and Perth on September 15.