Australia’s Most Collected Wines 2023
Wineark has released its list of Australia’s Most Collected Wines.
It’s pretty remarkable that Tasmania’s Tolpuddle Pinot Noir will become, sometime in the next three years, Australia’s most collected pinot noir. It’s already our second most collected pinot noir – behind no less than Mount Mary, the latter of which has a few extra decades of production behind it but, fair being fair, is made in volume far less than Tolpuddle. Given that 2012 was Tolpuddle’s first release though, this has to be one of the fastest ever rises to the upper echelons of Australian wine in the history of Australian wine collecting. Tolpuddle will go from a non-existent brand to the top of the Australian Pinot Noir collecting tree in just fifteen or so years.
This is just one of many fascinating insights provided by the release of Wineark’s Most Collected Wines of 2023 list. Wineark has almost two million bottles of Australian wine in its vaults across fifteen locations around Australia, which not only makes it Australia’s biggest cellarage but also, arguably, our most important. Every three years Wineark completes a full audit of the wines in its care, ranks them by total number and releases a list of the top 50. There are no judgement calls made, no favours, no nods or winks: it’s all pure numbers, and as a result it’s the best indication we have of what’s happening on the ground in the world of collectible Australian wine.
One of the interesting things about this endeavour is that all wines (in its cellarage) are tallied. If a wine comes in at, say, 250 for one of these audits, and then appears in the top 50 the next time around, the folks at Wineark know exactly how many places the wine has jumped, and therefore what kind of trajectory the wine is likely to be on (i.e. how hot it is in the market). And they can graph it.
This is how we know that Tolpuddle is likely to move to the number one Pinot Noir spot sometime soon. It’s also how we know that Standish The Standish Shiraz, grown in the Barossa Valley, is rising up the collectable charts with a bullet. The Standish now appears at number 46 on the list, having risen 100 places in the past three years.
This is quite an achievement by Standish, given that the list – unavoidably – has an inherent bias towards wines made in larger quantity, and also to those made over a larger span of time. This caveat should always be emphasised: the fact that Mount Mary, for instance, ranks as Australia’s most collected Pinot Noir is extraordinary; this list is biased towards higher volume wines, because it’s based on volume of each wine in storage, and on volume alone. Just to emphasise this point in triplicate: the more of a wine that is made, and the longer it’s been around, the more of it that can or could have been cellared. Penfolds Grange, for instance, is made in sizeable volume every year, and has been produced for over 70 years. It’s no surprise then that it sits at the top of this Wineark’s list as Australia’s most collected wine.
That said, regardless of volume and time, Grange is always going to be up or near the top, thanks to both its general standing, and to its incredible quality. Indeed, given the asking price per bottle of Grange, it’s no mean feat that there are more bottles of it in storage than any other wine. If this list were compiled by estimated value rather than by volume, then Grange would presumably lap the field many times over.
There is a lot of talk about cool climate wines and of a general drift toward lighter styles, but when it comes to collecting, full-bodied South Australian red wine reigns fundamentally supreme. South Australia has as many wines on this top 50 list as all the other states combined (25 of the 50, with Victoria the next best represented with 10). It’s worth noting too that nine of the top most collected wines are either shiraz-based or cabernet-based, and that a whopping 34 of the top 50 wines on this list are made with these varieties.
Shiraz and cabernet are still far and away the champions of Australian wine collections.
That said, when you look at the list of the biggest movers up the list, five of the top ten are white wines. Chardonnay in fact has more representation on the “biggest movers” list than any other variety, red wines included. Tolpuddle Chardonnay is the biggest mover of all the chardonnays, and now appears on this list for the first time, having risen an impressive 66 places. The chardonnays of Giaconda, Pierro, Lake’s Folly and Mount Mary have also moved strongly up the list.
Top-flight chardonnay, as a category, is on fire in the wine collections of Australia.
There are many more interesting trends and insights to be gleaned by a perusal of this list, and by looking at what’s moved up and what’s moved down. Given that the wines of South Australia dominate the list, it’s no surprise that the Barossa Valley is the most represented individual wine region. But the number two best-represented region is the Hunter Valley, which may be more of a surprise to some, though of course it shouldn’t be.
One other thing to really shine through, looking at this list, is that Australian wine collectors clearly know what’s what. All the wines on this list are rock solid. Australian wine collectors are no fools; this list is proof.
Highlights from Wine Ark’s list of Australia's Top 50 Most Collected Wines of 2023:
● Most popular wine brand: Penfolds (7 entries)
● Most popular wine region: 1st: Barossa (8 entries), 2nd: Hunter Valley (6 entries)
● Most popular single varietal: Shiraz (14 entries)
● Most popular state: South Australia (25 entries)
● White Wine vs Red Wine: 13 whites, 37 reds
● The most collected Shiraz: Penfolds Grange #1 (Multi-regional)
● The most collected Cabernet Shiraz: Penfolds 389 #3 (Multi-regional)
● The most collected Cabernet Blend: Lake’s Folly #6 (Hunter Valley)
● The most collected Cabernet Sauvignon: Moss Wood #5 (Margaret River)
● The most collected Riesling: Grosset Polish Hill #12 (Clare Valley)
● The most collected Chardonnay: Leeuwin Estate #9 (Margaret River)
● The most collected Pinot Noir: Mount Mary #26 (Yarra Valley)
● The most collected Semillon: Tyrrell’s Vat 1 #14 (Hunter Valley)
The Top 50 of Wineark’s Most Collected Wines 2023 is:
1. Penfolds Grange
2. Penfolds St Henri Shiraz
3. Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
4. Rockford Basket Press Shiraz
5. Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon
6. Lake's Folly Cabernets Cabernet Blend
7. Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Blend
8. Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
9. Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay
10. Mount Mary Quintet Cabernet Blend
11. Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier
12. Grosset Polish Hill Riesling
13. Yarra Yering Dry Red No 1 Cabernet Blend
14. Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon
15. Penfolds RWT Shiraz
16. Giaconda Estate Chardonnay
17. Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon
18. Rockford Rifle Range Cabernet Sauvignon
19. Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz
20. Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon
21. Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon
22. Lake's Folly Chardonnay
23. Tyrrell's Vat 9 Shiraz
24. Henschke Mount Edelstone Shiraz
25. Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz
26. Mount Mary Pinot Noir
27. Yarra Yering Dry Red No 2 Shiraz Blend
28. Torbreck RunRig Shiraz Viognier
29. Tyrrell's Vat 47 Chardonnay
30. Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir
31. A.P. Birks Wendouree Shiraz
32. Rockford Black Shiraz Sparkling Shiraz
33. Tolpuddle Vineyard Chardonnay
34. d'Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz
35. Grosset 'Springvale' Watervale Riesling
36. Rockford Rod & Spur Shiraz Cabernet
37. Turkey Flat Shiraz
38. Jasper Hill Georgia's Paddock Shiraz
39. Leeuwin Estate Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon
40. Thomas Wines Braemore Semillon
41. Henschke Keyneton Estate Euphonium Shiraz Cabernet Merlot
42. Bass Phillip Premium Pinot Noir
43. Seppelt St Peters Shiraz
44. Pierro Chardonnay
45. Standish The Standish Shiraz
46. Crawford River Riesling
47. A.P. Birks Wendouree Shiraz Mataro
48. Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay
49. A.P. Birks Wendouree Shiraz Malbec
50. Mount Mary Chardonnay