h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

King & Godfree on the corner on Lygon St Carlton (Melbourne) is just another stock-all-the-usual bottle shops when you walk in. There's all the mass-released wines of Australia. Look for a white-haired guy in his seventies wearing an apron and ask him for 'something special'. he'll take you to a locked iron gate towards the back of the shop and down the cellar. And into wine-lover's heaven. He'll take you around and explain about a couple of bottles that were produced by a winemaker of international reputation that decided to make a wine just for himself, produced about ten cases, kept five and the other five are here. The cellar is musty, cobwebbed and lined with rows of wooden crates.

I walked in four years ago looking for a bottle of Penfolds 1990 Grange Hermitage for a birthday present. "I'm sorry, sir. We have every other vintage apart from that particular one over there, on that rack. Perhaps you'd be interested in a Penfolds Bin 90A. It's not widelely known but the Penfolds people only produce that one every ten or fifteen years, when conditions are impeccable."

I bought it for A$100 and gave it to my old man. I wish I'd bought a case. It's currently about A$470 a bottle and not due to mature for another five years.