If you're needing to top up a depleted cellar after a busy festive season, last year's top 50 most collected Australian wines offer some top-shelf candidates. The survey, conducted by Australia’s largest wine storage provider and vintage wine retailer, Wine Ark, accounted for two million bottles of wine and thousands of collectors.
The list, first released in 2006, ranks Australian wines from 1-50 in order of most collected. Lasy year, Penfolds' Grange reclaimed the top spot, among other iconic cellaring staples. Though Penfold’s still came out on top, the results showed a movement towards premium, boutique winemakers.
“We are seeing a big shift away from large wineries. The popularity of old cellar-staples like Penfolds, Wynns and Lindemans is generally falling, while a new breed of wineries is rising quickly. These include Tyrrell’s, Rockford, Turkey Flat and Tolpuddle Vineyard.” Says John Cuff, CEO of Wine Ark. “What must be concerning for Penfolds and its owner, Treasury Wine Estates, is the fact that of their 13 wines in the Top 50, all but two have moved down. Due to the number of bottles in the count, it takes a large change to shift wines in the Top 10."
Another notable shift was towards Tasmanian wines, with their presence up an impressive 175% - Tolpuddle Vineyard’s Tasmanian Pinot Noir moved up 101 places from last year to enter the top 50 results. “It is clear that there is a distinct move in Australia’s wine cellar toward more elegant, cool climate wines from small winemakers,” says John.The most popular wine regions were the Barossa and the Hunter Valley. The most popular state overall was South Australia, with shiraz coming out as the top most collected variety. Red wines continued to dominate the results with 42 in comparison to eight white wines appearing in the list. The most collected white wines were the Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay from Margaret River and at the Grosset Polish Hill Riesling from Clare Valley.
View the full top 50 here and add your favourites to your Halliday Virtual Cellar.
