Wine lovers queue to buy new release of Aussie Grange

By Pauline Askin

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - The latest vintage of Australia's best known wine, Grange, went on sale on Thursday with investors and drinkers queuing up to hand over the hefty A$550 ($516) asking price.

All 7,000 - 9,000 cases (of 12 bottles a case) of the 2003 Penfolds Grange vintage are expected to be snapped up by the end of the day, the winemaker said.

"We will sell all our stocks of 2003 today. We don't hold on to any. Boom, it's gone today," Penfold's chief winemaker Peter Gago told Reuters.

On May 1 every year, Penfolds puts a five-year-old vintage up for sale, with people queuing at the winery's cellar doors.

Costing ten to 20 times more than what a mid-range (A$25 - A$50) bottle would fetch at a restaurant, such top-notch wines attract a range of collectors despite the country's current glut of cheap wine.

"There are collectors and collectors," said Gago.

"A lot of collectors are actually drinking collectors. There are people out there who speculate and make money out of it." Thursday's sale at the winery drew a mixed crowd, from doctors, lawyers, businessmen and retirees, he said.

"There were tradespeople, who were literally off to their next (job) ... that's the lovely thing about wine. Gone are the days when it was elitist," he said.