Our search for Australia and New Zealand’s best golf club wine lists.
There are few better combinations than golf and wine. Not necessarily because you should be drinking during a round, although there are clubs where a cold beer at the turn is practically part of the constitution. It is what happens afterwards that makes the relationship between the two so enduring.
The 19th hole is where the scorecard is put away, the competitive edge softens and the stories begin to improve. It is where golfers who have spent four hours walking together can sit down, replay the good shots, conveniently forget the bad ones and order something cold or room temperature. Preferably something good.
Which got us thinking: which golf clubs in Australia and New Zealand have the best wine lists?
We’re not necessarily talking about the longest list, the most expensive bottle or the cellar containing the most famous names. A great club wine list should reflect the people who drink it and the place in which they do so. It might be a deep collection of Australian classics. It might champion the producers in the surrounding region. It might have a few hard-to-find New Zealand pinots tucked away alongside the usual suspects. Or it might simply be a beautifully curated list that offers something genuinely interesting at every price point.
So, we put the call out to our readers and followers to find out where the good stuff is hiding. The responses were revealing.
“Can’t go past the cellar at Kooyonga Golf Club,” wrote Facebook follower Arthur Williams. When one responder suggested Kooyonga, Williams doubled down: “Kooyonga Golf Club actually isn’t a golf club. It’s South Australia’s most exclusive wine club that also has a championship golf course.”
There were plenty of other contenders. Clare Golf Club nominated itself for its fridge full of some of the world’s best riesling, adding that the reds are “rather good also”.
Barwon Heads and Peninsula Kingswood received praise for their local selections, while the South Australian clubs were singled out for their willingness to embrace the region’s magnificent shiraz.
Tasmania’s Barnbougle Dunes got multiple votes, as did Royal Adelaide, where one follower described the cellar as “very extensive and well-priced”.
Lake Karrinyup was suggested as possibly having the largest cellar, while Royal Sydney’s wine shop was described as “top notch”, with “some unbelievable bargains”.
The best golf club wine experiences are rarely just about the wine. Golf and wine have more in common than you might think. Both reward experience and attention to detail. The more you know, the more you appreciate the subtleties, but neither requires you to be an expert to enjoy them.
A great golf course has character, provenance and a sense of place. So does a great bottle of wine. There is terroir, craftsmanship, history and plenty of personal preference involved in both. And both can inspire an extraordinary amount of conversation.
Golfers can spend an entire lunch arguing about whether a particular course is better than another. Wine drinkers can spend even longer debating a grape variety. Neither group has ever been accused of knowing when to stop.
As for the best golf club wine list in the world, that is a different question altogether.
Augusta National might have a compelling case. Renowned golf writer Robert Lusetich has had a look inside its cellar and describes it as “among the elite in America, easily worth millions”.
The so-called house red? Château Lafite Rothschild. And apparently there is plenty of Domaine de la Romanée Conti for those with a taste for serious burgundy. “I didn’t ask what that cost,” Lusetich says.
Lafite is a particular favourite among the green jackets, although the definition of “house red” gets somewhat complicated when certain vintages can command up to $15,000 a bottle.
There is also the famous story involving Phil Mickelson. According to folklore, Mickelson was once enjoying a bottle when he was called away from the table. After he left, Augusta chairman Hootie Johnson was overheard saying
to another club official: “Do be sure that Mr Mickelson is presented the bill for
the wine.”
Which seems entirely fair. After all, golf is expensive enough. You might as well enjoy the wine.
• Did we miss a cracking wine list? Tell us! Email [email protected]
