When money trumps all else
We don’t go to wine industry events in order to safeguard our independence, so we didn’t get an invite the Penfolds launch. This isn’t really our territory anyway since TWE has priced even their humblest bin reds above our target range. The first hint we got that this was not Penfolds’ greatest moment was Tyson Stelzer’s sober report, which is much more subdued than his gushing PR piece from last year.
The bad news is that the cheaper 2011 Bin reds are a sorry lot that reflect an awful vintage plagued by too much rain and not enough sunshine. Other makers have turned out decent 2011 reds, but Penfolds has delivered a mixed bag of goods despite its ability to select fruit from all over SA. In fact, there was nothing to stop Penfolds from buying fruit from the Hunter or Margaret River (both enjoyed a perfect 2011 vintage).
In his Take on this release, Tyson scores most of the 2011 reds in the low nineties, while Campbell Mattinson at the Winefront explores the high eighties. At BWU$20, we don’t recommend wines that score 87-89 points unless they’re around $10. With the 2011 Penfolds bin reds, we’re talking $30 to $80.
How to trash a great brand
The poor quality of most of the 2011s hasn’t stopped TWE from pushing up the prices, a trend they started several years ago when they decided to squeeze the venerable old Penfolds brand for all it’s worth. Check this post to get a sense of the ill will that caused: Penfolds Bin Release 2012 – price hike a ‘slap in the face’.
It’s one thing to own a great brand, but quite another to maintain it. The French understand this better than anyone: for many decades, the top Bordeaux chateaux have declassified their wines in really awful vintages. That means they sell them under a second label which sells for less than half the price of the Grand Cru. In really awful vintages, they sell the really ordinary stuff to the negociants in Bordeaux for blending into Cru Bourgeois.
That’s what TWE should’ve done. After all, they have plenty of labels, and they’re adding more all the time. Why didn’t they declassify their worst bin reds into the Thomas Hyland blends? The only label that didn’t get a 2011 release is Bin 707. Presumably, there wasn’t enough Cabernet to go around.
More ways to damage a great brand
One way is known as ‘too much of a good thing’ since it causes confusion in the marketplace. ‘The Bins are important for the financial health of Treasury [TWE],’ industry veteran David Farmer says, ‘and some analysts calculate that with the super premiums like Grange and St Henri, Penfolds accounts for +50% of Treasury’s profit.’
So what’s more natural than cranking up prices and adding ever more labels to the collection? Here’s where we’re at today:
- Koonunga Hill (around $10 on the street)
- Thomas Hyland ($17)
- Basic Bin range: 2, 8, 9, 23, 28, 51, 128, 138, 311 ($35)
- Upper Bin range – Bins 389, 407, 150 ($70)
- Lower Icons – Reserve Bin 12A Chardonnay, Yattarna, St Henri, Magill & RWT ($90 – $150)
- Upper Icons – Bins 707 & 169 (both Cabernets, around $300)
- Grange ($700)
- Special Releases like the 2010 Bin 170 Kalimna Shiraz Block 3C ($1800 – it’s not a misprint).
There are some 15 bin numbers now plus half a dozen named icons. Penfolds conjured up the Bin 170 for its 170th birthday. Grange was once the brightest star in Penfolds’ galaxy, but rampant greed generates these special bins that can only devalue the Grange brand. At the other end of the scale, Rawsons Retreat labels no longer show the Penfolds logo, so Koonunga Hill is rock bottom.
In his take on Penfolds’ 2014 release, Philip White tells us that Koonunga means ‘mound of excrement’, and points out that Penfolds should drop the ‘Hill’ after Koonunga. Our view is that Penfolds should take the Penfolds brand off this line as well. It’s branding 101: anything that doesn’t do your brand credit does it harm, but Penfolds will take the brand off the Thomas Hyland range instead according to TS.
The rewards of Loyalty
People like David Farmer warn that $80 is a big ask for Bin 389, a wine Penfolds lovers used to buy 2 or 3 cases of every year. Tyson Stelzer points out that $80 will buy you most of Australia’s best Cabernets ‘from Voyager, Leeuwin, Cherubino, Yeringberg, Wantirna, Grosset, Primo…’. We could add: or two bottles of Woodlands Margaret or three bottles of Xanadu 2010, the triple trophy winner and wine of Show in Canberra 2013.
The truth is that TWE doesn’t give a toss about loyal punters in Oz because it’s hell-bent on squeezing juicy profits out of the prestigious brand in the Chinese market. That’s the reason for the $1800 Bin 170, and there will be more of those. And more of stunts like these: Penfolds launches $168,000 wine – Gago gone Gaga?
We can’t keep track of all the new bin numbers, so what the Chinese will make of the bulging range is anyone’s guess. Perhaps Penfolds offers that market a more limited selection, and is happy to throw the cheaper bones (sorry, bins) to us Aussies.
Any Bargains in this Release?
Tyson’s best buys are the Bin 138 Barossa Valley Shiraz Grenache Mataro 2012, the St Henri Shiraz 2010, and the Reserve Bin 12A Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2012. St Henri gets the nod from the Winefront as well at 96, a point ahead of the 2009 Grange. St Henri is still under $100.
Kim
