Another Rainy Grays Afternoon

I was introduced to Grays Online before I even arrived back in Sydney. And the last thing a bloke who spends his days at home needs to know is that there’s an online wine auction every day, on the hour, every hour from 2pm to 5pm.

By the time we moved into our house on 15 February I’d purchased six cases. Come the end of the month I'd ordered another four.

Not that we were necking the stuff. It just sat in the study taking up valuable space. Space that became hard to reclaim.

For a start, 10 cases is a lot to get through, especially when people turn up for dinner with a bottle of their own. Secondly, while the two cases of red were both a decent drop, a Hunter Semillon aside the whites ranged from fair to just plain awful.

Fortunately the average bottle price by this time was an even five dollars. And there is, after all, that saying about getting what you pay for.

This cuts both ways, of course, and we were much happier once we moved away from Grays and started buying the New Zealand whites we know and trust.

Now Grays is back.

Two weeks ago we were out of red. Grays had always delivered on this front and the unlabelled Hunter Sangiovese-Shiraz - a bargain at $55 the case - didn’t disappoint. I should have realised that this was how it all started back in February. I didn’t, of course, and so it was that I found myself a week later starting to flick through the day’s auction catalogues.

I wagered that an unlabelled Hunter Sangiovese – another $55 score - would be from the same winery and just as good. Yesterday I discovered Grays is now listing Te Kairanga wines, buoyed by which I purchased a case of Riesling and six bottles of Sauvignon. Even the Sauvignon was just $11 a bottle - and spending on bargains isn’t really spending at all.

Kate has never been one to adopt this particular maxim, but she was happy enough with these purchases. She won't, I sense, be so again when she gets home today to learn that I’ve been at it again. I was just curious about what the Te Kairangas were going for today. It’s just that in doing so I discovered an unlabeled Hunter Semillon and put in a low early bid.

It's also that I bid for two of the four available cases. And that I won them both.

In my defence they’re only $4.15 a bottle and Semillon does cellar well. Let’s just hope it's drinkable.