Penfolds have announced the dates for this year’s ‘premium and complementary’ after-sales service for anyone with a bottle of Penfolds’ red wine over 15 years old. They claim to have recorked more than 90,000 bottles since the first clinic was held in Australia in 1991 but the 'clinic' recently provoked some debate in this thread on the forum.
If you attend the recorking clinic, you can have the wine’s condition assessed by Penfolds chief winemaker, Peter Gago. ‘This will determine both the opportune drinking time and continued callaring potential of each bottle,’ they maintain.
If necessary, a Penfolds’ winemaker will remove the cork to test the bottle of its contents together with the owner [sounds as though they plan to test the owner too, which could be interesting – JR]. A small amount of wine is drawn to allow the winemaker to assess its quality, and if it is deemed to be a good example of the style and vintage, it is topped up with the current vintage of the particular wine. Each bottle is then re-corked, recapsuled, certified and numbered, with a special label signed by the assessing Penfolds winemaker and endorsed by the world’s oldest fine art auction house, Christie’s.
The recorking clinic will be touring the following cities this year:
• London, UK – 1 Oct (at Somerset House)
• Munich, Germany – 10 Oct
• Miami, USA – 27 Oct
• New York, USA – 30 Oct
But beware: in order to attend, you must register at www.penfolds.com. Registration closes two weeks before the date of the clinic.