Investing in Champagne: the good, the bad and the bubbly

Australians are prodigious drinkers of Champagne - even more so over the Christmas period when a glass or two of bubbles is de rigueur for many.

Wine broker Langtons has just released Australia's largest allocation of luxury Champagne and is promoting it as an investment.

Australia is consistently landing in the top 10 markets for Champagne globally and Langtons believes "the local fine wine market is expected to mimic overseas success with Champagne making it a key collection and investment category for fine wine enthusiasts".

My advice is to always buy wine you want to drink down the track, not merely as as an investment. To my palate Champagne does not improve with age. Others disagree. 

“When it comes to cellaring, Champagne is a category that deserves more of the spotlight here in Australia," says Michael Anderson, head of auctions at Langtons.

"As we’ve seen overseas, Champagne has an impressive ageing potential which sees the wine develop with grace to place itself as a wine category regularly fetching eye-watering prices under the hammer.

"We can expect to see Champagne rise up the ranks in the secondary market here in Australia, with savvy investors already purchasing sought-after bottles to cellar away for future auctioning."

Overseas, avid collectors are displaying an ever-growing interest in rare cuvées, prestige bottlings, and late-disgorged releases and most recently, non-vintage (NV) Champagnes are also joining this list, Langtons says. 

We shall see. 

So you’d like to own some of Australia’s rarest wines?

Fancy owning a bottle of the very first vintage of Penfolds’ flagship wine: the Penfolds Grange Hermitage 1951, released as Bin 1? 

The bottle is expected to fetch more than the current price record - and that of the country’s most expensive wine - of over $150,000 (including buyer’s premium).  

It is one if the lots in the upcoming Penfolds Rewards of Patience auction to be hosted by fine wine purveyors Langtons.

The auction launched on the Langtons website this week and will close on Sunday, June 29, at 9pm.

The auction will be a chance for avid Penfolds fans to bid on the largest collection of rare, collector wines from the prestigious Australian winery including special, early vintages from the 1950s and large-format bottles. 

Notably, the auction will feature a bottle of the very first vintage of Penfolds’ flagship wine the Penfolds

In addition to the Bin 1, the auction also features one of the world’s very few full Bin Grange Sets from 1951 to 2018, which was last seen up for bidding at the 2022 Penfolds Rewards of Patience Auction going for a record-price of $430,000.

The Penfolds Rewards of Patience auction has been hosted by Langtons since 1996, with the auction’s name a nod to the seminal book Penfolds: The Rewards of Patience by Master of Wine Andrew Caillard.

“As the auction market begins to warm to an interest rate cut, it’s the wines of Penfolds, the most represented wine in the Langtons Classification, that savvy wine enthusiasts and investors are reaching for,” says Michael Anderson, Head of Auctions and Wine Consignment at Langtons.

“This may be one the last chances to bid on a complete set of Penfolds Grange. These unicorn pieces
become rarer each year as bottles fail, wines are consumed and verticals are split.

“This is an incredible version of a Penfolds Grange Set - one of the finest we have seen.”

Other highlights in the Penfolds Rewards of Patience Auction include a g-series set of the g3, g4 and g5
bottles and early vintages of the Penfolds Grange from 1955.