Australia’s most expensive wines of 2024
Penfolds Bin 180 Cabernet Shiraz 2021 ($1180) is Australia’s most expensive (table) wine in 2024. If you include fortified wines though then Seppeltsfield 100 Year Old Para Vintage Tawny takes out top place. The current release of the Seppeltsfield 100 Year Old Para (1924 vintage) is priced at $1750 for 100ml, the equivalent of AU $13,125 for 750ml.
There’s a new wine at the top of Australia’s 2024 most expensive wine list. It’s Penfolds Bin 180 Cabernet Shiraz 2021, a special release made from a special (Coonawarra) vintage. This wine was described on The Winefront as a “cabernet-shiraz blend of the highest quality. It doesn't just express the region; it understands it. Penfolds hasn't just made a wine; it's made history.”
This list, it should be remembered, is not a list of Australia’s best wines. This is simply a list of Australia’s most expensive wines. There are two kinds of wines on this list: those wines which have been created and priced with the express intent of appearing on a list like this. And those wines which are produced either regularly or semi-regularly and have worked their way to the upper echelons of wine courtesy of merit, historical importance and/or demand. This list favours the latter.
There’s nothing “reassuringly expensive” about this list; the list is what it is, the prices are what they are.
If you factor in fortified wines, then Australia’s most expensive current-release wine is not the new Penfolds wine, but is the Seppeltsfield 100 Year Old Para Vintage Tawny. The current release is, as the name would suggest, the 1924 vintage, priced at $1750 for 100ml. This is the equivalent of AU $13,125 for 750ml. All Saints Museum Muscadelle and All Saints Museum Muscat, also aged fortified wines, are both $1200 for 375ml or AU $2400 for 750ml. Drop for drop these are Australia’s most expensive current-release wines.
A list of this nature is really though about current-release table wines. This is where there’s a lot more jostling for position. Penfolds G3, G4 and G5 special (Grange) blends could each be considered Australia’s most expensive wine, at AU $3500 a pop per 750ml bottle, though these are special blends and none of them are current in 2024. Penfolds nonetheless continues to dominate this end of the market: it’s 2024 Collection included Penfolds Bin 707 2022 at AU $800, Penfolds II Cabernet Sauvignon (though this includes Bordeaux grapes) at $500, Penfolds Quantum (which includes Napa Valley grapes: edit, not current)) at AU $1000, Penfolds Grange 2020 at AU $1000, and Penfolds Bin 180 Cabernet Shiraz 2021 at $1180. Given that Penfolds Bin 180 – which is a special bottling – is current, it is arguably Australia’s most expensive (table) wine in 2024.
I say arguably because there are always, as mentioned above, lone wolfs out there, priced largely as an attempt to appear on a list like this. I’m ignoring them until I’m convinced otherwise. One wine I’m not ignoring though is Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz 2008 Museum Release, which is priced at AU $1250. The reason that I haven’t named this as Australia’s most expensive current release table wine is that it’s from the museum; the actual current release Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz is priced at AU $975 (until further advised). I’m splitting hairs but these are the facts and you can build your own price hierarchy.
Two new-ish wines, Peter Lehmann Masterton Shiraz 2018 and Taylors The Legacy Cabernet Sauvignon 2015, both also have a price tag of AU $1000, equal to the asking price of Penfolds Grange 2020. Cullen The Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon has been AU $900 per bottle since the 2020 release (of which only 261 bottles were released). Torbreck The Forebear Shiraz 2019 is $850, as is Torbreck The Laird Shiraz 2019. Bass Phillip Reserve Pinot Noir 2022 is AU $825. Neldner Road Kraehe Shiraz 2021 is asking AU $750, as was Wild Duck Creek Original Vineyard Shiraz 2017 on release (in 2022).
I haven’t mentioned Chris Ringland above; I’m waiting to confirm pricing. It’s no longer current but Penfolds Bin 170 Kalimna Block C Shiraz 2010 was $1800 per bottle when it was released a decade ago.
In 2017, on noticing that a bunch of Australian wines had jumped considerably in price from one year to the next, I made a list on The Winefront of Australia’s Most Expensive Wines. This list – available here – names a great many high-priced wines, and yet in 2024 it now looks quaint, and is certainly out of date in terms of current pricing. Not surprisingly, this list has attracted over 350 comments; it’s one of the most ‘popular’ posts in the Winefront’s 22-year history.
I now plan to go through that 2017 (but ad hoc added to over the years) list and analyse or at least outline any movments, and additions/deletions.
More to come.
Relevant links to The Winefront reviews:
Penfolds Bin 180 Cabernet Shiraz 2021
Penfolds Grange Shiraz 1952-2020 inclusive
Seppeltsfield 100 Year Old Vintage Para
All Saints Museum Msucat / Muscadelle NV
Penfolds G3
Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz (reviews of 23 vintages)
Peter Lehmann Masterson Shiraz
Taylors The Legacy Cabernet Sauvignon 2015
Cullen The Vanya Cabernet Sauvignon 2012-2022
Powell & Son (Neldner Road) Kraehe Shiraz 2015, 2016, 2017
Bass Phillip Reserve Pinot Noir 1995-2016 inclusive
Wild Duck Creek Original Vineyard Shiraz 2014, 2016, 2017