‘The auction of a unique collection of Te Mata Coleraine not only made a stir within the wine media, it also made the record books.
The result, which saw the 32-vintage collection of Coleraine fetch $19,000, left Te Mata Estate’s sales and marketing manager Toby Buck smiling.
The news raced across the winemaking and wine media landscape with Fine & Rare Wines specialist Marcus Atkinson noting that the result had effectively made it two records in a row for Te Mata Estate. In 2016 a Coleraine vertical collection went for $6,500 under the hammer at an auction in Auckland. It equated to $195 a bottle and became the largest single wine collection and overall auction price for any New Zealand wine.
“Until now,” he said.
“At almost $600 a bottle this is the highest auction price achieved for any collection of New Zealand wine,” he said of the recent auction staged in Napier as a build-up to the Hawke’s Bay Wine Auction next month.
The result came as no surprise for many wine writers, including several from across the Tasman. Huon Hooke of Australia’s The Real Review described Coleraine as ‘a great wine from the very first vintage’. Andrew Graham of The Australian Wine Review said Coleraine possessed a reputation for unwavering consistency. ‘Please world, make every vertical like this.’
Earlier this month The Australian featured a profile of Te Mata Estate and described its Coleraine as ‘a beautifully elegant expression of Hawke’s Bay that has cemented its reputation as one of New Zealand’s finest wines’.
Coleraine connoisseurs and devotees have only a little over four months to wait for the next addition to the globally-lauded line.’