Penfolds Offers Free Re-Corking for Older-Vintage Wines

Penfolds pulls out all stops (and corks) at their recorking clinics.

Those of us savvy enough to have begun collecting valuable wines early in our lives -- versus me, who just wishes I had -- can see significant returns on their investments. The bottle purchased at release for, say $100, can sell at auction for 10 times that amount 10 to 15 years later. One customer I met at my wine retail job told me that he cashed in some of his 1970s and 1980s investments and put his two children through elite colleges on the profits. I was envious. 

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Current Senior Red Wine Maker Steve Lienert
took clinic participants through a tasting of
the latest vintage from Penfolds.

Most investors in high-end wine will go to great lengths to protect their investments. Temperature and humidity control are important, as is a stable, movement-free environment. The health of the wine and the corks are keys to their ageability. 

The world of high-end, aged wine is also high risk. In addition to the influences of such things as market fluctuations and critic scores, many wines change hands often among collectors, and there is often no guarantee that the wines have been handled properly. Additionally, corks can naturally deteriorate with age, causing leakage and the influx of oxygen, which is generally the enemy of wine.

In an effort to ease the minds of their customers, and to offset the destruction that a faulty cork can have on ageable wine, Penfolds of Australia has for the last 25 years been hosting free re-corking clinics to extend the life of some extremely valuable wines. And because the clinics are run by Penfolds winemakers they provide face-to-face time among the winemakers and collectors, which is extremely valuable to both.

Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago marks the fill
level on a bottle of Penfolds.

I attended a Penfolds Re-Corking Clinic recently at the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles to see what this was all about. Customers with cases of older Penfolds and Penfolds Grange, or just a single bottle, were treated to a demonstration hosted by long-term Penfolds employees, most of whom are winemakers. Their expertise is undisputed. 

Peter Gago, Penfolds chief winemaker and our host for the presentation, explained how customers often have a strong emotional attachment to their wines, as they represent memories, people, places, or anything that is important to them, whether it be a single bottle passed down through the family or a whole cellar bought solely for investment purposes.

Everyone is treated the same at these clinics, he says, regardless of how many bottles they bring. Some collectors with huge collections may walk away with just a few of their bottles needing to be re-corked and some walk away finding out their long-treasured bottle is not even worth saving with re-corking. 

The basic procedure of a Penfolds Re-corking clinic is as follows: 

Collectors' wines are checked in, and must be at least 15 years old. Collectors are asked about the provenance of their wine and how they have stored it. The collectors are assigned a time for their re-corking assessment by the Penfolds experts.

Next, wine bottles are visually and physically assessed, which involves reviewing the front and back labels, the capsule and cork, and ullage, or fill level. 

An older cork is removed with a special
 two-pronged Ah-So corkpull.

Capsules and corks are removed using either a long-barreled standard table model corkscrew or, for more crumbly, moist, older corks, the German Monopole Ah-So two-prong opener, which works by sliding two prongs down either side of the cork (see picture to right) to safely remove the cork in one piece.

One ounce of wine is then poured, and the remaining wine is immediately gassed and the bottle is closed with a temporary cork.

Wines are then assessed via nose and palate. If a wine is not deemed good, it receives a white dot on the bottle and is recorked immediately and returned to the customer. This can be a tense moment for the owner, emotions sometimes run high, says Gago.

If the wine is deemed good, it is topped off with a couple ounces of Penfolds' most recent vintage, fitted with a temporary cork, and moved on to the re-corking station. Here, another Penfolds expert removes some wine to bring the bottle back to its original fill level, adds more gas to the wine, and places a new Penfolds cork into the re-corking machine. This official Penfolds cork displays the company name -- either Penfolds or Penfolds Grange -- as well as an inscription indicating when it was re-corked. 

The re-corking machine -- of which there are two in the United States -- is a mobile device that the Penfolds team ships to clinic locations. Unlike bottling lines at wineries, where corks are inserted in a continuous cycle, it corks bottles one at a time, so more care is taken with the bottles and corks. 

Penfolds red wine maker Andrew Baldwin adds a
new foil capsule to a freshly recorked bottle.

Once the corks are inserted, the bottles are re-capsuled and then wrapped in tissue paper. In addition to making the bottles look nice, the tissue also reveals if any wine has spilled out during the process.

All information regarding the bottles coming to the clinic is meticulously noted and stored in the Cloud, providing records of provenance and authenticity. Each bottle receives a sticker on the back stating all the relevant information concerning it's recorking.

No bottle can be re-corked more than once through the Penfolds re-corking system. Gago says that the re-corked bottles' lives are extended and are therefore even more valuable. Which is a good thing, since some older Penfolds are among the highest-priced wines in the world. London's Telegraph has reported that Penfolds Grange Hermitage 1951 is Australia's most expensive wine, valued at $38,420.

Now that would have helped with my kids' college tuition!

Until next time, 

Cheers!

Learn more about Penfolds re-corking clinics.

Penfolds' latest wines were available for tasting after the re-corking clinic.

Four Brix: Craft Winery in Ventura

When one thinks of American wine, one is usually thinking of California Wine, as the Golden State produces approximately 95% of all wine in the country, from such well-known areas as Napa, Sonoma, Paso Robles, and, increasingly, Santa Barbara County. Ventura, both the county and the town, is not a name that often pops up on our wine radar, but it does have a nascent boutique wine industry, and one that is worth looking into.

Four Brix' beautiful tasting room
 belies the industrial park setting.

The Los Angeles Wine Writers group recently visited Four Brix Winery in the City of Ventura, located 65 miles north of LA. This small (2,000 cases total) boutique winery claims to be the first registered winery in Ventura County. Other Ventura County wineries that you might recognize are Ojai Vineyards and the cult-status Sine Qua Non (you are extremely lucky if you can even get a visit to the latter winery, or even get on their allotment list).

A trip to Four Brix is like a breath of sunshine ... in a West Ventura industrial park. But don't let that deter you. Yes, the location is reminiscent of "wine ghetto" areas in Lompoc and on Rt. 46 in Paso Robles. But like these places, once you step inside the beautifully appointed tasting room, it doesn't really matter that you are not out in the vineyard. Four Brix' tasting room offers wine, food, and the handiwork of local artists in a warm, plush, and friendly setting. It also sports a sizeable barrel and tank room behind glass doors in the back.

Four Brix is the passion project of three couples, who met at a Rotary home-wine-making club about 10 years ago. They realized they had in common a love of  varietal blends from four countries, namely France, Italy, Spain, and California, hence the "Four" in their name, which is paired with the word "Brix," the measure of wine's sweetness. Four Brix' first official vintage was in 2008. The very first wine they decided to make, "Scosso," is named for the riderless horse in the Palio de Siena horse race -- an event they attended while in Italy.

On our visit, co-owner Karen Stewart treated us to a generous tasting. Most bottles are priced between $24 and $40 (exact pricing can be found on their Web site).

I especially liked the Four Brix white wines, which included:

Cani Amante Riesling

2013 "Smitten" Viognier: Grapes are sourced from the Chumash-owned Camp 4 vineyard in Paso Robles. This wine has notes of melons and peaches, and is crisp and clean, thanks to its 100% stainless steel aging.

2013 "Desirous" Grenache Blanc: This crisp white is aged for 5 months in American oak (most of Four Brix' barrel-aged wines go into French oak), and is delicious, with fruit and minerality.

2014 Cani Amante Riesling: Crisp, fruit-forward, and lovely.

Red wines poured for us included:

2011 "Temptress": This is a Spanish red blend of mostly Tempranillo with Grenache and Mourvedre.

2011 Petit Sirah: This inky black 100% Petit Sirah, from grapes grown in the Gold Hawk Vineyard in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma, is lush with notes of blueberries.

2012 Meritage: This is a French blend of Merlot from the "Rest and Be Thankful" vineyard in Paso Robles, plus Cab Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Burbank vineyard in Paso.

Scosso is the first wine
 Four Brix decided to make.

2013 "Scosso": This is a blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot, and is made from grapes grown in Paso Robles Vineyards.

2013 Cane Amante Block 4: From Cani Amante Vineyard in Ojai, the grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. This wine received 90 points from Wine Spectactor.

An Italian blend of Barbera, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, and Montepulciano is being bottled in June.

Rounding out our tasting was a special surprise, the "Porteau" port-style dessert wine made from 100% grenache. This light red, Banyuls-style sweet wine was paired with Pecorino Romano cheese, and was a beautiful way to finish our tasting. It's sweet, but not too sweet, just the way I like it.

Four Brix offers flatbread pizzas in their tasting room, and flights of wine are offered at $12 (the fee is waived with a 2-bottle purchase). Karen Stewart, the only one of the 6 owners who works full time at the winery, runs the tasting room, and Karen's husband Gary is the winemaker.

Visit Four Brix Thursdays through Sundays -- their hours are available on their Web site, www.fourbrixwine.com. The winery also hosts special events and will soon be expanding into another 4,000 square feet of warehouse space. Their wine club, known as "Brix Heads" boasts 500 members.

Until next time,
Cheers!