Heading to Australia

Heading to Sydney, Auckland, and Melbourne at the beginning of July. Any wine that’s only sold in AU or NZ that’s worth drinking or bringing back home?

No plans to visit wineries but plenty of wine stores.

When I lived there I found the only things that weren’t sent to the US were items like small production Pinot from the Yarra and Mornington, unusual items like “sherry” from the Riverland, really small special bottlings like Henschke Hill of Faith Mataro, and high end Hunter Semillon. But some other wines like Rutherglen rare muscat and topaque were much less expensive there than here.

And the Mornington Penninsula is close enough to Melbourne (~1 hr) that you might want to consider heading down. Have a blast.

It would be helpful if you told us what kinds of wines you like / what styles you are looking for? There are literally hundreds of wineries in both countries that aren’t available in the USA. Your query is very broad brush. Also what price range are you interested in?

In Melbourne: Prince Wine Store, Winehouse (some nice stuff but more expensive), Cloudwine (smaller but interesting selection)
In Auckland: Caros, Wine Direct, Glengarry (Victoria Park) - all three will have a good range

Giaconda, Wendouree, Sami-Odi, Ruggabellus, Clonakilla, Bindi, Holyman Project X, Bass Phillip are small production cults here. Hard to find at times for the locals.

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I like almost everything except pinotage but that’s South Africa. Price range is all the way up to Grange Bin 95 but we will most likely buy wines in the $20 to $200 range. Drinking more Napa cabs, Pinot, and Bordeaux these days but open to anything.

Thank you for the recommendations.

There’s a few Melbourne wine shops listed in this thread…
https://wineimport.discoursehosting.net/t/melbourne-canberra-wine-shops/109577/6

I don’t have expertise with Sydney or Auckland wine shops, but I’m sure others can chime in there.
I have no idea what actually makes it in to the US, but my assumption is it is a very very small percentage of whats available, at least with any regularity.
A few labels I am regularly buying… Juniper (Cabernet), Ravensworth (Everything), Fraser Gallop (Cabernet), Domenica (Everything), Balnaves (Cabernet), Blue Poles (Cab Franc Merlot blend), Crawford River (Riesling), Moorooduc Estate (Pinot), Mayer (Pinot), Balnaves (Cabernet), Stanton & Killeen (Fortifieds), Morris (Fortifieds). Most of what I buy isn’t super expensive. I’m not sure I’ve ever paid more than $100 for anything Australian. Mostly I’m under $50 a bottle. Often well under. If you want stuff with a bit of age, that might be a bit different though (and harder to find at retail).

Demian,

Good advice here. For Australia i would especially point you to Kent’s list. These more “cultish” wines are rarely brought into the US. Wendouree should probably be top of that list. One to add which i think is no loner brought in is Rockford Basket Press. There’s a few on Paul’s list that don’t make it here too.

Much of the other great Aussie stuff is imported and often sells for less in the US than Australia.

The other direction is to just ask for really small interesting producers at a great wine shop.

K and L does a great job imported much of the best New Zealand stuff. You can get a lot of the great producers here and again for not much of a premium, or a discount. That said the focus tedns to be Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. In NZ, why not get some of the wines not brought in, especially the Bordeaux blends, dessert wines, and aromatics (Gewurz, Riesling, Pinot Gris).

Clayton

Thank you everyone for your replies. We fly back to the states from Sydney so we’ll find a great shop there for our purchases. In addition, we’re skipping Melbourne and doing 3 nights in Fiji.

Hopefully some locals weigh in for you, but in the city itself, one of these three will work:
Kent Street Cellars
The Oak Barrel
Australian Wine Center

You won’t be paying the cheapest prices, but there will be some wines you won’t find in the US. Just looking at Kent Street Cellars, I see some of the following which are as rare as hen’s teeth in the US (i do see Mount Mary at retail here):
Wendouree Shiraz $200
Henschke Hill of Roses $400
Mount Mary Quintet $135
Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier $110
Lakes Folly Cabernets $95
Bindi Kaye Pinot Noir $95

and more.

Or the Oak Barrel might be better for some nerdy up and coming stuff.

I would suggest Five Ways Cellars in Paddington https://fivewaycellars.com.au/ . Close to the city. Make an afternoon/evening of it and have a beer or two at the Royal Hotel with the locals amongst the terraced houses and retreat to a restaurant later on. Best cellars also offers a good selection with excellent advice. http://www.bestcellars.com.au/

Some great suggestions here. I’ll throw Standish Wine Co into the mix too, rare to see in the US & amongst the best coming out of the Barossa.

As others have mentioned, You could go to Oak Barrel, Annandale Cellars, Five Way Cellars, Kent St Cellars, etc depending on where you are located.

Even Dan Murphy’s - the closest to a Total Wine - will likely have some highly regarded (and not widely distributed outside of Australia) wines like Wendouree, Lakes Folly Cabernet, Felton Road Pinot noir, etc. their Cellar Release options also generally provide good value for money for a varietal/regional snapshot.

Lots of good wine bars and restaurants like 10 William St in Paddington to Firefly in Cremorne (which has a surprisingly large Pinot list), and dozens of other places in between.

If it were me, I would checkout Native Drops in Bondi to browse current trends or reach out to the crew at Different Drop or DRNKS (e-commerce) and leverage their expertise if you want to find out more about up and comers.

Wendouree. Period. End of conversation. If you can find it (unlikely but possible), buy every bottle you can and bring it back. If you decide you do not want it, we can discuss the fee I will pay you over and above cost for your trouble in bringing it to me.

There’s a fair bit of Wendouree, much of it with age at Dan Murphys. You could have it delivered to your hotel.
https://www.danmurphys.com.au/search?searchTerm=wendouree

Surprised nobody mentioned Rockford (Basket Press and Rifle Range). Top drop no longer available in the US market…

I doubt you can find Wendouree at Dan Murphy’s (Its all sold out and anything they had was likely via auction).

Oak Barrel in Sydney will sometimes have some…inflated prices but given you will have a hard time find any, it is probably worth it.
Vintage Blue on Kent Street in Sydney has had Wendouree in the past…I don’t know about now.
Wine House in Melbourne (which is a great all around store anyways) has some for just over Aussie Retail and with the weak AUD, it’ll be an absolute steal…

I would also strongly recommend trying to meet up for a wine night when in Sydney…the crew there is fantastic and will likely bring some harder to find stuff for you to try. They might even have some older wendouree they might be willing to part with…

For a NZ bdx blend, I would suggest you try the 2013 Puriri Hills Harmonie du Soir or the 2013 Puriri Hills Pope. Merlot dominant made in the style of a Pommerol. A passion project by the owner Judy Fowler and the 2013 vintage has recently been released. Not cheap but very good wines. 2013 was a stellar vintage for Puriri Hills. For a more Cab dominant blend (think Paulliac) the Stonyridge Larose from Waiheke Island is very good (but also expensive).

NZ’s most sought after and hard to get Pinot and Chardonnay come from Bell Hill in Waipara region of North Canterbury. Other North Canterbury wineries worth looking at include; Greystone, Black Estate & Pegasus Bay.

If you are flying from NZ to Aust then be aware that you can only bring 3 bottles per person into Australia.

Brodie

FWIW I stopped at DM in Willoughby on the way home from work to just get some cheap Pinot and they had ~dozen bottles of Wendouree. Did not pay attention to vintages etc.

These days Dan’s does seem to be able to get a little of the Wendouree. You’ll pay about 3 times the price you would if you are on the Wendouree mailing list.

Thank you Kent. Our hotel in Sydney is only 4km away from Five Way Cellars, and their online inventory has some of the producers you mentioned.