James Halliday’s $ 50,000 Cellar
Two dozen of each:
2006 grand cru white Burgundies (France) ($6000-$10,000)
2005 grand cru red Burgundies (France)($7000-$12,000)
2005 Bordeaux first of super seconds (France) ($7000-$12,000)
NB: These vintages are all exceptional
2005 Guigal La Las, Rhône (France) ($9000-$12,000)
One dozen of:
Château d’Yquem, Bordeaux (France) – vintage not critical ($3500-$4500)
Loose change, then, for one dozen of each:
2004 Grange, Barossa Valley (when released)($6000)
2006 Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer (Germany)($350)
2006 Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer (Germany)($850)
2006 Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Eiswein, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer (Germany)($1500)
2006 Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier, Canberra($850+)
2006 Bindi Block 5 Pinot Noir, Macedon Ranges($950+/-)
Paringa Estate Reserve Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula($850)
Wendouree Cabernet Malbec, Clare Valley($850+/-)
Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot, Margaret River($1000+/-)
Hunter semillon (under screwcap)
Clare Valley riesling (under screwcap)
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James Halliday: The great cellar guide
James Halliday lists what he would buy for his cellar based on a budget of $50,000, and imparts a little information about his own collection.
Enter our James Halliday competition for your chance to win one of 300 12-month memberships to James Halliday's Wine Companion website.
If you were to put aside just a fraction of the great bottles that have fallen to James Halliday’s rapacious vinous curiosity during his more than 40-year involvement with wine, you would have the foundations of a cellar that could make grown men weep.
Author, wine judge, vigneron, photographer … Halliday is unquestionably Australia’s leading authority on wine and the first person Gourmet Traveller WINE would consider asking to spend our money, especially the biggest budget.
What’s the best advice you have for someone starting a cellar?
“Wherever possible, buy at least 12 bottles of any wine with any pretensions to longevity; only in this way will you be able to track its development to what you consider to be its optimum, and still have something left to drink.”
What were the early foundations of your cellar?
“My first permanent cellar was built in 1969, at the very time that Australian and French wines were competing for my attention and Brokenwood was about to be born. Hunter Valley semillon from the great Lindeman vintages up to 1970, Penfolds Grange and other Penfolds Bin reds were the focus of the domestic portion. Bordeaux, rather than Burgundy or the Rhône, led the way, with a large (relatively speaking) quantity of 19th-century wines purchased for a veritable song at Christie’s in 1974-75. Alas, no more.”
What’s your cellar’s biggest bias now?
“Pinot noir, especially but not limited to Burgundy, with Hunter semillon and riesling from all over next in line.”
Can you describe your greatest cellaring disaster?
“A rat which took a particular liking to six bottles of 1918 Château Coutet [Bordeaux] while I was overseas. It ate through the capsules and the outer end of the cork, before pushing the remnants of the cork into the bottle.”
And your biggest cellaring surprise?
“A cryptically labelled bottle discovered the other day with CH 97 PG written on a small strip of adhesive-label paper. I had completely forgotten that we had even made a tiny quantity of pinot gris in that year from our upper Yarra vineyard, and I could not believe the wine when I tasted it. It was like a Loire Valley combination of sauvignon blanc and chenin blanc, and served blind to the winery crew at Coldstream Hills, none even came close to either age, variety, maker or region.”
What will never taint your cellar?
“The 1997 prevents me saying pinot gris, so I shall content myself with Marlborough sauvignon blanc.”
TEXT NICK RYAN PHOTOGRAPHY JAMES HALLIDAY
This article appeared in the August/September 2008 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE.