Australia’s Most Collected Wines: 2019

It's always fascinating. Every three years Wineark, Australia's leading wine storage service, does the numbers on the Australian wines it has in storage and publishes a list of the winners and losers. It's not the talk it's the walk; the list shows what people who cellar wine in professional storage facilities are actually buying and keeping. Many of the wines in this list are a given but then, surprises too are many.

We'll get to St Hugo and Tolpuddle in a second.

Penfolds, for instance, holds the top three positions, as it did in 2016, with Penfolds Grange, Bin 389 and St Henri. Grange and Bin 389 have swapped positions (Grange now sits first) but the top of the list is essentially static. Indeed - and this is more of a surprise - Lake's Folly Cabernets was the number 4 most cellared wine in the country in 2016 and remarkably it still is.

And yet Penfolds can hardly rest easy. Bin 407 is down 4 spots to 17, Bin 28 is down 4 spots to 20, and Bin 128 is down 3 spots to 39. Penfolds' top order is flying but its middle-order is in disarray.

This list is compiled off pure numbers: commercial quantities are excluded but otherwise it's compiled from the number of wines in storage, across Wineark facilities nation-wide, with no filters applied. If a new wine is bought and cellared in quantity then it can make the list straight away; this is us as cellarers, now.

And so now it's time to mention the list's biggest mover: Tolpuddle Pinot Noir. Three years ago it wasn't within cooee of the top 100; now it sits at 43. It's moved up 101 places. Wineark now has more bottles of Tolpuddle Pinot Noir in storage than it does of Peter Lehmann Stonewell, Cape Mentelle Cabernet Sauvignon, Giaconda Shiraz or Wendouree Cabernet Malbec.

Interesting.

Other top movers include:

• Yarra Yering Dry Red No 1 Cabernet Blend at #16 up 10 places

• Rockford Rifle Range Cabernet Sauvignon at #19 up 10 places

• Tyrrell's Vat 9 Shiraz Hunter at #25 up 10 places

• Mount Mary Pinot Noir at #30 up 30 places

• Turkey Flat Shiraz Barossa Valley at #31 up 12 places

• Yarra Yering Dry Red No 2 Shiraz Blend at #26 up 34 places

Wherever there are winners there are also losers. According to John Cuff of Wineark:

"Treasury Wine Estates products take a large slide. Penfolds products down, Seppelt products down, Wynn’s products down. Riddoch down 6 places and Michael down 9. This should be a scary trend for Treasury Wine Estates reflecting the domestic market's sentiment on their wines. The cellar staple Wynn’s Black label Cabernet holds its 8th position steady from 2016. This wine still shows value and resonates with the collector.

"Wines dropping out of the top 50 include Peirro Chardonnay, Grosset Gaia, and Mount Langi Ghiran Langi Shiraz. However log term cellar staple and Coonawarra icon the St Hugo plummets down 26 places out of the Top 50.

"A massive changing of the guard is the loss of the Lindemans Trio series. St George and Pyrus drop out of the Top 60. For decades these wines have been cellar staples and a go-to for anyone starting a
collection," Cuff says.

More highlights:

• Most popular wine brand: Penfolds (8 entries)

• Most popular wine region: Barossa (9 entries) followed by the Hunter Valley (6 entries)

• Most popular varietal: Shiraz (25 entries)

• Most popular state: SA (27 entries)

• White vs Red: 8 whites, 42 reds

• The most collected Shiraz: Penfolds Grange (number 1)

• The most collected Cabernet Shiraz: Penfolds 389 (number 2)

• The most collected Cabernet Blend: Lake’s Folly (number 4)

• The most collected Cabernet Sauvignon: Moss Wood (number 6)

• The most collected Riesling: Grosset Polish Hill (number 11)

• The most collected Chardonnay: Leeuwin Estate (number 10)

• The most collected Pinot Noir: Mount Mary (number 30)

 The Wineark Top 50 Most Collected Wines 2019 is:

1. Penfolds Bin 95 Grange Shiraz

2. Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz

3. Penfolds St Henri Shiraz

4. Lake's Folly Cabernets Cabernet Blend

5. Rockford Basket Press Shiraz

6. Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon

7. Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Blend

8. Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

9. Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier

10. Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay

11. Grosset Polish Hill Riesling

12. Mount Mary Quintet Cabernet Blend

13. Penfolds RWT Shiraz

14. Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon

15. Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon

16. Yarra Yering Dry Red No 1 Cabernet Blend

17. Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon

18. Giaconda Estate Chardonnay

19. Rockford Rifle Range Cabernet Sauvignon

20. Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz

21. Henschke Mount Edelstone Shiraz

22. d'Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz

23. Torbreck RunRig Shiraz Viognier

24. Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon

25. Tyrrell's Vat 9 Shiraz

26. Lake's Folly Chardonnay

27. Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz

28. Voyager Estate Cabernet Merlot

29. Jasper Hill Georgia's Paddock Shiraz

30. Mount Mary Pinot Noir

31. Turkey Flat Shiraz

32. Tyrrell's Vat 47 Chardonnay

33. Grosset 'Springvale' Watervale Riesling

34. A.P. Birks Wendouree Shiraz

35. St Hallett Blackwell Shiraz

36. Yarra Yering Dry Red No 2 Shiraz Blend

37. Seppelt Chalambar Shiraz

38. Seppelt St Peters Shiraz

39. Penfolds Bin 128 Shiraz

40. Petaluma Hanlin Hill Riesling

41. Dalwhinnie Moonambel Shiraz

42. Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz

43. Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir

44. Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz

45. Cape Mentelle Cabernet Sauvignon

46. Rockford Black Shiraz Sparkling Shiraz

47. Giaconda Warner Vineyard Shiraz

48. Wynns Coonawarra Estate Michael Shiraz

49. Rockford Rod & Spur Shiraz Cabernet Blend

50. A.P. Birks Wendouree Cabernet Malbec Clare Valley

 To see the full list go to the Wineark site here.

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