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Auction price for a single bottle of 1951 Penfolds Grange Hermitage Bin 1 Shiraz. According to the Drinks Business, the previous Australian auction record was $103,000 making this 1951 Shiraz the most expensive bottle of Australian wine ever sold. 1951 was the first year Grange was made. There are reportedly 35 bottles of the original vintage still in existence. If you have one please invite me when you open it.

How does a “Burgundy barrel” compare to a “Bordeaux barrel?”

A. Burgundy barrels are slightly smaller than Bordeaux barrels.

B. Burgundy barrels and Bordeaux barrels are the same; but each is known in its own region by that region’s name.

C. Burgundy barrels are generally less toasted than Bordeaux barrels.

D. Burgundy barrels are slightly more round than Bordeaux barrels.

A Burgundy barrel is low and squat, and has a deeper, rounder bilge than a Bordeaux barrel. The deeper bilge is designed to allow the spent yeasts (known as lees) to settle easily. This shape is especially helpful in making white Burgundy (chardonnay) where extended lees contact leads to wines that have a sense of creaminess (important given the high acidity of the wines). A Burgundy barrel is 228 liters in capacity. A Bordeaux barrel is higher and longer than a Burgundy barrel. It is 225 liters in capacity.

“In Europe then we thought of wine as something as healthy and normal as food and also as a great giver of happiness and well being and delight. Drinking wine was not a snobbism nor a sign of sophistication nor a cult; it was as natural as eating and to me as necessary.”

—Ernest Hemingway
A Moveable Feast

142 k

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