Domaine Simha

So it was brought up in one of the forums...Domaine Simha..

New producer out of Tasmania...

Most of the reviews (the few I could find) on their wine seem to suggest the wines are of good quality....but after taking a look into their prices, I have to wonder, is this just marketing?  Firm belief in their product?  High cost of operating in Tasmania?

To give you an idea of what we're looking at:

Riesling - $75 dollars.  This puts them at the top of the tree price wise for an AU Riesling.  More expensive than Grosset Polish Hill, which I don't like that much but is probably considered the #1 AU Riesling...More expensive than Crawford River, more expensive than Leo Buring, Pikes Merle, etc, etc...List all of the top Rieslings in AU and this is about twice as expensive as those are...Even from an international standpoint, this puts it more expensive than Donnhoff, more expensive than a lot of JJ Prum (depends on which one)..but it essentially puts it at the high end of German Rieslings...

Chardonnay - $95 dollars.  I think outside of Giaconda, this is the most expensive AU Chardonnay...more so than Leeuwin Arts, more expensive than By Farr, than Xanadu Reserve...there is a huge list of really top AU Chardonnay in that 55-80 dollar bracket and this is more expensive than those..

Pinot Noir - $85/$150/$250.  So on their low end, they're more expensive than nearly every other Pinot in Australia...on their high end they're in there with Bass Phillip Reserve....in the case of the $250, the first release will be in 2016....$250 gets you a pretty damn good Red Burgundy as well..

So all of this and ZERO track record.  None...

I hate to say it but this all looks like a lot of marketing BS.  Price it high, make people believe it is a quality product and they're paying for something special.....You know, I get the idea, I understand the thought process behind it...the problem is it really doesn't work well with wine.  At the end of the day, it still needs to perform.  Even the most overhyped wine, Ace of Spades, is still a good wine...and Champagne is already associated with luxury and most of the people buying it have no idea anyways....But in a market like still wine, is that going to work?  So far all of the companies that have tried that have failed...Now with this one, it actually looks like the wine is good...which really helps...but is it good enough to justify those prices?  I don't know..

I will say...The price hype and the good reviews has made me want to try the wine...I certainly would be interested in trying it...but would I buy it?  Not at this point...There is absolutely nothing to suggest this is going to be better than so many other things out there...Tassie, in general, has not shown itself to be ideal for Pinot.  You'd think it would be but they just don't perform at their price point...It is funny, I feel like it is complete marketing but I still want to try it....I want to try it because if it is good, I always love good wine..and if it isn't as good as it should be, I'll have no issues saying so..and I'll want to say so....I see the lightning storm but I'm still walking towards it...