Grape & Grain | Penfolds recorking clinic is date night for wine lovers, from New York to Asia

The building, on a tree-lined avenue in New York’s Upper East Side, is called Academy Mansion. Somewhere on one of the floors above us, Mr Big once unveiled a cavernous walk-in closet for Carrie Bradshaw’s shoes in the Sex and the City film.

Another day, it may well be a stage set for something else, but in late October, the wrought-iron railings either side of the front door state, ‘Welcome to The Penfolds House’. The cameras and film stars have been replaced by wine bottles, canapes and a lucky group of invitees, all here for the New York stop of one of the wine world’s most unusual world tours.

We are at the Penfolds Recorking Clinic, an event where the only admission necessary is an appointment and a bottle of Penfolds wine that is more than 15 years old. This is the 25th year of the clinic, the first was held in Perth, Western Australia, in 1991. Many of the world’s biggest wine producers used to hold these events, where clients could bring old bottles to be checked and recorked, but today Penfolds is the only one left flying the flag. Chateau Lafite Rothschild held its last one more than 10 years ago – put off, I have heard, by the risk of counterfeiting.

“Perhaps,” Penfolds’ chief winemaker Peter Gago says of that suggestion, then adds with a barely perceptible shrug: “It is also a huge logistical and financial undertaking.”

You just have to look around for proof of that. Penfolds has so far covered five cities across Australia, followed by London, and is off to Miami, Vancouver and Los Angeles on the North American leg before turning to Asia. Customised Italian-made recorking machines are kept overseas full time for these one-day events; things get a little more intense in Melbourne and Sydney, where the clinic lasts three days and have seven members of the team assessing up to 900 bottles per day.