Penfold's Bin Releases - Are They Indicating A Dark Trend?

Written by Ian Robertson on 4th May 2009

Every year, liquor stores around Australia start getting filled with display stands, posters, and all sorts of other paraphernalia signifying arguably the most promoted wine release date of the year. The release of the Penfold’s Bin reds.

These wines are very much staples of the Australian wine industry. They are thought of by a large section of the population as the benchmarks for red wine in Australia. It is reasonable to say that occasionally they live up to that reputation as well. In recent years, the Bin 389 especially has really been a fantastic wine, certainly living up to its billing in terms of quality as poor man’s Grange – however, can a poor man afford $44.99 for a bottle of wine? (and that is the cheapest I have seen it – it seems to top $55 a bottle more often than not.)

The ‘standards’ of the range, Bins 28, 128 and 138 have been of varying quality over the last decade. Selling by the thousands, these wines are the ‘bottom tier’ of the Bin releases. Of course, that is not to mean that they are bottom tier wines – there are much cheaper wines in the Penfold’s portfolio. But these wines should be in reach of most – and this year I almost fell off my perch when I saw release prices of between $30 and $35 for these wines.

This is a sorry state of affairs, and signals something to be wary of in the next few years. These wines were selling on release for around $18 to $22 not too many years ago, a very reasonable price for the quality they represent. A price tag in the mid $30’s though? Well, the quality to my mind has been nowhere near consistent enough to command prices like this.

I really hope this is not the start of a complete snowball effect on wines in this class. The last few years has seen some prominent brands skyrocket in price – Penfold’s are certainly not the only ones, just perhaps the most easily noticeable due to their solid promotional activity.

If it is the start of the larger companies pushing the limits on price, then the smaller producer will be the ones to benefit. Buyers will not follow blindly while larger brands push the price barrier.