The marketing of Lorenzo the Magnificent by Chateau Garage is a stroke of genius. Photos / Richard Wood and Richard Brimer
THE FACTS
- Chateau Garage released what it claims is New Zealand’s most expensive retail wine
- It has made 225 bottles, selling at $695 a bottle.
- A lot of Chateau Garage’s winemaking is done in a garage at the back of a Napier home.
When word began to spread that Chateau Garage – a small Napier wine producer owned by Rebecca Moses and Ollie Powrie – had launched a red wine called Lorenzo the Magnificent with a price tag of $695 per bottle, the local wine community reeled from a widely felt sense of shock.
It’s generally acknowledged that $695 makes Lorenzo the most expensive bottle of wine ever released by a New Zealand producer, and a number of the people in the wine trade I spoke with weren’t happy that Ollie and Rebecca had gone out on such a limb.
They weren’t happy at all.
Phone calls and texts were flying around all over the Bay.
Perhaps people were affronted that such a small, relatively new wine company could have the audacity to charge such an amount?
Perhaps they thought no one would ever pay such a hefty fee for a Hawke’s Bay red wine, and so the decision to charge such a premium would somehow bring a sense of disrepute on the industry?
Perhaps they were affronted that Chateau Garage actually do a lot of their winemaking in a garage at the back of their Napier home?
Who knows?
What I do know is that anyone who raised these arguments with me quickly found out that I strongly held the opposite view.
As someone who has worked in the wine trade for many years, I have long been an advocate that Hawke’s Bay has needed some small volume, pinnacle wines that give buyers aspirational targets to aim for.
It’s an easy argument to rationalise.
Few would argue that the very best Hawke’s Bay red and white wines sit at the very top tiers of international winemaking.
We may not have centuries of history or fabulous chateaus to help romance our story, but on a pure quality basis, even our most expensive wines are considered by international collectors and sommeliers to be both world-class, and extremely well-priced.
And let’s not forget that consumers have always been fascinated by high prices.
As a retailer, I am constantly being asked what our most expensive bottles of current release Hawke’s Bay wines are – especially by the international tourist market.
When I reveal the answer and a sub-NZ$200 price, there is often disappointment; a sense of “Is that it? Is that as good as it gets?”
The market for ultra-premium Hawke’s Bay wine may not be huge, but it is definitely there.
Hawke’s Bay’s inclusion in the Great Wine Capitals global network of celebrated wine provinces will only drive further demand as the inbound wine tourist sector increases.
But back to Chateau Garage and the 2024 Lorenzo the Magnificent.
Only 225 bottles were produced and, to prove my point, I understand that around a quarter of that volume has already been sold to private individuals and elite restaurants across New Zealand.
Do the maths.
Chateau Garage recently donated 24 bottles of Lorenzo the Magnificent to The Hawke’s Bay Charity Wine Auction – but if they sell the remaining bottles at full price, a return of just under $140,000 is on the table.
Not shabby for a tiny producer looking to fund their existence in the hardest market our national wine industry has ever seen.
Rebecca and Ollie seem unfazed by all this attention.
Both have perfected ‘we aren’t really sure how we got here...’ personas, but I’m not buying their nonchalance for a second.
We are all watching a carefully conceived plan unfolding. They are great storytellers who have surrounded themselves with a team of top-end creative professionals, and quality hallmarks touch everything that they do.
Chateau Garage has always been about thoughtful small batches, sustainably high pricing, and creating a sense of discovery and inclusion that make their buyers feel they’re part of something special. They may well be. Time will tell.
And, after all that, what’s the wine that’s created all this fuss actually like? Lorenzo the Magnificent hails from the 2024 growing season - a year that Ollie, a noted viticulturist, describes as ‘the vintage of a lifetime’.
Goodness knows I’ve heard that expression more often than I care to think, but the hype around 2024 from some of the sagest minds in Hawke’s Bay winegrowing makes it clear it was a very special year.
Following the storied Super Tuscan model, Lorenzo is a blend of cabernet sauvignon (62% - sourced from the Cornerstone vineyard) and sangiovese (38% - sourced from the Osawa vineyard).
It’s very aromatic and complex on the nose with the classic cabernet components of leather, eucalypt, and tobacco countered with the spicier, redder fruits that sangiovese brings to the conversation.
The palate is awash with energy, with layers of plush tannin supporting a base-line of darker fruits.
The finish is very long and clean with vibrant tension between the acid, tannin and fruit characters.
Befitting a wine of this status, it’s a style that needs time to evolve.
In its youth the plusher fruit characters that I know are currently in hiding are overshadowed by those ripe tannins, but all the building blocks are there for Lorenzo to live up to its full name.
I have never tried Hawke’s Bay wine that was anything like it before. I thought it was great.
But the real Lorenzo story for me is not about the wine. It’s about how a small family business had the sheer balls to breach the existing rules, put a peg in the ground, and make a stand.
And it’s a story about how the pricing decision that ruffled the feathers of so many of their peers may well be a godsend for all concerned.
I think they have done the wider wine industry a huge favour and won’t be surprised to see other Hawke’s Bay wineries following Ollie and Rebecca’s lead - releasing their own aspirational ‘micro-batch’ labels in coming years.
The side benefit, which marketing experts call ‘the extremity effect’, is that other current flagship releases like Craggy Range Le Sol, Paritua 21-12 or Te Mata Coleraine suddenly seem like a bargain. Wouldn’t that be great!
By global standards, that is exactly what they are.
I predict that Lorenzo the Magnificent will comfortably sell out within a year of its release, and I suspect that many of the buyers will not be captains of industry, but rather curious wine enthusiasts who are intrigued with the opportunity to own something that has such obvious collectability.
They will use Lorenzo to mark a special occasion or perhaps make liberating a bottle of Lorenzo an occasion in itself. I am sure that nothing would make Rebecca and Ollie happier.
- Mac Macpherson owns Advintage in Havelock North, one of New Zealand’s largest wine retailers.