Is there value for money in Australia’s most expensive white?

So, is the so-called White Grange, recently sold out to those quick enough to grab it at around $80 per bottle, actually worth it? Even at $150 per bottle, the price asked by some opportunistic retailers for the 1995 Penfolds Yattarna, that’s an impossible question to answer. I’ve always shied away from the ‘value for money’ ratings system adopted by some wine critics, for the simple reason that what might represent a week’s wages to somebody might be a stand-up bargain to someone else. It’s my firm belief that the wine writer’s task is to communicate an impression of quality, then let the consumer decide if it’s worth a try at whatever price the maker requests. But am I avoiding the question?

Penfolds’ new flagship white is the most expensive chardonnay of current and recent release on the Australian market. As the white stablemate to Grange, it was always going to be that expensive. It interests me greatly whether or not Penfolds will increase the price for the 1996 wine, which I rate more highly than the 1995 edition. In a free market price is related both to demand and supply. The demand, fuelled by years of press speculation, could hardly have been higher, as the almost instantaneous sell-out confirmed. The supply, a small and finite 1180 cases, was never going to meet the wine’s pent-up demand.

Given that it is empirically impossible for the entire readership of this magazine to actually taste the wine, here are my impressions: The 1995 Yattarna’s pure core of concentrated chardonnay fruit is cloaked in layers of texture and complexity, each moving easily to the next. Its aroma of white peach, nectarine and apple is given complexity through toasty, spicy oak and subtle buttery malolactic influences, while its palate is as deep and carefully constructed as one could expect. The wine is integrated, balanced and perfectly complete. The only aspect about which I was not entirely happy was a slight sappiness at the finish, insufficient however to prevent me from being greatly impressed.

Ready to cellar for another five years and possibly beyond, Yattarna not only meets the expectations and pre-release hype, but in doing so has surely created an entirely unprecedented, worthwhile and original expression of chardonnay. And that’s the clever thing about this wine. Without denigrating it in any way, it is a true Penfolds white, obviously reflective of its maker’s status as Australia’s most significant and possibly best maker of red wine. That’s exactly what I like about it. Penfolds could not have more outwardly resisted the temptation to recreate another Giaconda, a Bannockburn or a Leeuwin Estate. This wine’s richness, generosity and close relationship with its oak is so obviously born from a Penfolds heritage that even the most doubting of Thomases would have to concede the company has remained entirely faithful to its image. Make no mistake, this is ground-breaking chardonnay. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to like it.

The remarkable and unprecedented extent to which Penfolds has laid the groundwork for Yattarna, making dozens of trial wines from a number of South Australian, NSW and Victorian vineyards, from chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and riesling, entirely justifies the Yattarna’s price from an internal cost-accounting perspective. Some of these wines have been released to the public – the unusually-named ‘Trial Bin’ wines from chardonnay and semillon are prime examples – but a number are likely never to see the light of day. The project has consumed time, fruit, oak and winery space like no other of its kind prior to release. But really, that’s got very little to do with the question of whether or not its record price represents value to the consumer.

Sadly, these days it’s inevitable that the question of investment crops up. There’s an alarming trend in Australia for people new to collecting wine – and even new to wine itself – to jump on the bandwagon set in motion by the extraordinary retail and auction prices of Grange. How many, I wonder, of the 1180 cases of Yattarna actually purchased last week will be opened and enjoyed by the person who actually first bought the wine? How many have been put under the bed, knowing that as the first vintage of a lineage hardly likely to fail to win prestige, the 1995 Yattarna will reap a fast dividend on the resale market? There’s little doubt in my mind that anyone able to buy a bottle or two with the single view towards making a fast buck via the auction system will be disappointed. To them, the $80 investment should look pretty cheap.

But what about that increasingly rare phenomenon, the wine purchaser who still buys ‘super-premium’ wine for no other purpose than to actually drink it. Does the 1995 Yattana offer good value to him or her? That’s the hardest question to answer. While I’d be presumptive enough to suggest that drinkers of wines priced $15 and under would be unlikely to find value in such an exercise, since it is impossible to adequately conclude a discussion of whether or not it is at least five times as good as a $15 dollar wine, I’m firmly convinced that the first release of Yattarna will not disappoint the true wine enthusiast who is used to paying out to indulge the interest.

If ever there was an original Australian statement about chardonnay, this is it. If ever a red wine maker of great renown could successfully turn the market’s attention to a white wine without compromising its integrity one sceric, Penfolds has done it with this wine. It’s regrettable for those whose emotions are locked into the Australia of the 1950s and 1960s that the Penfolds flagship white could not have been a riesling or a semillon, but I’ve never been in the slightest doubt that for Penfolds to fashion a white wine in its particular winemaker-influenced way that could stand up and partner Grange, its genuine wine, icon, it would have to be chardonnay.

I bow to their success. And, if you regularly spend up to $35 on good Australian chardonnay, you should find the Yattarna essential drinking at more than twice the price, whether you like it or not. Please login to post comment