World's Greatest Wines to be sold as NFTs
Timed Online Auction, 19 June - 10 July 2023
World's Greatest Wines to be sold as NFTs
About this Item
Strauss & Co Penfolds Grange 1951-2008 NFT
Penfolds was founded by Dr Christopher and Mary Penfold in 1844, who arrived in Australia with their vine cuttings in hand. They had no prior history in winemaking but set about inventing tonics, brandies, and fortified wines. Mary took charge, blending the wines to her taste and enforcing the winemaking philosophies that Penfolds still follows today. Penfolds Grange was created in the 1950s and holds a high reputation worldwide.
Sublime, voluptuous, beguiling, inviting, opulent, layered. These are some of the words often used to describe Penfolds Grange. Unlike the most expensive wines of Europe, Grange is not a single vineyard production, but rather a carefully blended composition of high-quality grapes harvested from a wide region. The craft and expertise that goes into each vintage gives Penfolds Grange its prestige pedigree.
The incredible Penfolds Grange collection includes 232 bottles from the maiden vintage 1951 through to 2008, with only a few vintages missing. It includes a 1952, signed by Max Schubert
1 x 375ml
189 x 750ml
42 x 1500ml
47 bottles of the collection have been re-corked at Penfolds re-corking clinics throughout the years.
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- The wines are currently stored in the professional cellars of Wine Cellar, in Cape Town, Africa’s largest fine wine cellar. Free storage to October 2023.
- Professional world-wide shipping can also be arranged, at negligible costs considering the high value of the wines.
- Each bottle within the NFT is also minted as an NFT on the polygon blockchain. This allows for the withdrawal or trading of single bottles, or the entire NFT at any time. Strauss & Co will coordinate the NFT through to maturity, making sure each vintage is added, as well as ‘burning’ NFTs when stock is withdrawn.
- Insurance to be undertaken by new owner.
- All Web3 development is undertaken by partner Fanfire. Prof Gert-Jan van Rooyen is Director at Fanfire, and also an Associate Professor Extra-Ordinary in Industrial Engineering at Stellenbosch University.
- Payment can be made in ZAR, USD, GBP and using any of the methods Strauss & Co accepts (cash, credit card, EFT) or optionally with cryptocurrency.
- Fanfire will facilitate payments made in ETH or BTC and stable coins.
- SASA (South African Sommeliers Association is a non-profit organization and aims to offer its services to service industry professionals in South Africa. SASA will receive 1% of the hammer price from Strauss proceeds.
Why NFTs?
Non-fungible tokens are a highly efficient way to package a collection of wines for long term aging or trading. The digital contract is stored on the Polygon blockchain and the NFT includes the critical information of the transaction in provenance, barcode, pictures, pricing, along with sensorial and aging information. NFT transactions are cheap and fast, and don’t add any marginal energy cost. The NFTs can be traded by the owner on any platform, currently also on Opeansea.
The NFTs include perfect complimentary cellaring of the wines in professional storage with Wine Cellar until October 2023, with the option to extend at commercial rates thereafter. Contracts are held in a custodial wallet or sent to a cold wallet such as the Venox Vault.
Provenance
The Coats Family Cellar is arguably the most prestigious fine wine collection ever offered in South Africa. It contains an expansive collection of the worlds finest, most sought-after wines, spanning over 150 years. Collected over many decades, the cellar was imported from Ireland to South Africa via refrigerated container. Each bottle within the Coats Family Cellar was authenticated by Michael Egan in August 2022 and given an ID number for tracking.
Michael Egan is a world-expert in fine and rare wines with more than thirty five years of experience. He was the principal expert for the plaintiff in the two major wine counterfeiting trials in Koch v. Eric Greenberg and United States v. Rudy Kurniawan, both of which occurred in 2013.
Along with Michael Egan, the Strauss & Co Fine Wine team have tasted extensively through the cellar and are confident of the wine storage and hence quality. The entire collection is currently stored at Wine Cellar.
Critics Ratings
As observed by wine writer Lisa Perrotti-Brown, a significant factor in its continuous appeal is its ageability.
The success of the Iconic Penfolds Grange’s achievements and awards over the last 70 years stands as testament to its quality. Such as the 1955 Penfolds Grange, winner of over 50 Gold medals, and the 1971 Penfolds Grange, First Prize in the Shiraz Category at the Paris Wine Olympics. The 1990 vintage was named ‘Wine Of The Year’ by Wine Spectator magazine in 1995.
Special mentions:
- 30 ‘Winery of the Year’ awards from Wine & Spirits Magazine. More than any other winery in the world.
- Perfect Scores: The flagship, Grange has received over 20 perfect scores from global wine critics. It is the only Australian wine to receive a perfect score from both Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate for the same vintage.
- ‘Winemaker of the Year’ from the International Wine Challenge in 1991, 2000.
- Top 100 Winery: Penfolds has been listed in Wine & Spirits Magazine’s ‘Top 100 Wineries’ annual list for a record 28 times, making Penfolds the magazine’s most awarded winery in the world.
- ‘Most Admired Wine Brand’ from Drinks International in 2016 and 2019.
What makes it so special:
- Ageability: It was Max Schubert’s vision to craft a wine so exquisite in its taste and age-worthiness that it would compete with the oldest living Bordeaux and Burgundies of its time.
- Heritage and Expertise: Penfolds was founded in 1844 and has a rich winemaking heritage spanning over 175 years. With such a long history, the winery has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and expertise in crafting exceptional wines.
- Critic scores and awards: Except for Max Schubert’s disastrously misunderstood first vintage, it has consistently won top scores.
- Exceptional vintages of Penfolds Grange in the NFT Lot: 1976 & 2008 – 100 Parker Points, exceptional vintages also 1986, 1990, 1991, 1998
- Since the 1990s the Grange remains in the Langton’s top tier “Exceptional’ category.
- The 1955 Penfolds Grange was named a ‘Heritage Wine’ by the Australian National Trust.
- The ambitious vintage 1971 won the category at the 1979 Wine Olympics and grabbed several medals across Australia.
- 1990 named the ‘Wine of The Year’ by Wine Spectator magazine in 1995.
- 1991 vintage -Duval was named Red Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine Challenge in London. 'One of the greatest vintages' - The Penfolds Vintage Journal.
- Quality, consistency and reliability of the recognisable ‘Penfolds Grange’ style.
- 1998 – 99 points from Parker and Wine Spectator.
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