About us:

Hello and welcome to Isle of Wine (i_love_wine) Geddit?!

This started as "the hobby that grew" and suddenly we have been in business for over 7 years, selling wine and spirits online, appraising cellars and holding the odd "masterclass".

Both Sally and I have a long background in hospitality and would consider ourselves enthusiatic amateurs in the world of the grape. Some of our friends have another name for it!

We are a friendly, professional and family run Hobart based wine business that offers 1000's of vintage wines, vintage ports, vintage Armagnacs, miniatures and other rare and unusual imbibements for all occasions. Back vintages are our speciality. Penfolds Grange, Wolf Blass Black Label, Henschke Hill of Grace, Ryst Dupeyron Armagnac, Seppelt Fortifieds, Chateau D'Yquem - these and many, many others are always in stock. From 1882 until current vintage we are very likely to have something you want!

Wine and the Apple Isle

The place to go for rare and unusual drinking Arriving in Tasmania eight years ago, two ex-hospitality workers found a way of turning their passion for collecting wine into a serious business. Isle of Wine is a specialist website selling vintage premium wine, hard-to-find vintage and tawny ports, rare bottles of spirits and liqueurs and an extraordinary collection of drinking-related memorabilia. The business was started in 2001 by well-travelled couple Sally and Paul Crosby, who explain that they were looking for a way of justifying a burgeoning wine cellar. "In the course of collecting we found we often had to buy a whole case of wine, or more, just to obtain one particular bottle," says Sally. "As collectors have always done, we began trading with other collectors and found we enjoyed it." This was the start of Isle of Wine. Having both worked in the hospitality industry in Europe and Australia, their interest in unusual imbibing was well established and the process of collecting had deepened their already considerable knowledge. Today, Isle of Wine provides an extensive catalogue of the couple’s cellar stock, complete with pictures, description and background information on each individual bottle. "This allows our customers to browse the cellar at their leisure, while being assured that the wine is being cellared in ideal conditions until the moment of shipping," she says. "With Australia Post’s Wine Delivery Service, we are confident about the manual handling of our delicate goods and the safe arrival of wine within a very acceptable time frame." –  Sally Crosby, Isle of Wine.   The business also runs weekly auctions on ebay.com.au enabling it to reach a large number of interested buyers. "We sell a lot through the auction environment and it also encourages more people to look at both our on-line store and the eBay store." Sally and Paul travel extensively within Australia to source the store’s stock. Trips to cellar doors and chats with winemakers have sometimes yielded great finds, as have liquidations of deceased estates. "We are also regularly offered items by people who see us on eBay," she says. The biggest demand is undoubtedly in the vintage premium wines and ports category, says Paul. Penfolds Grange, Henschke Hill of Grace, Orlando Vintage Port and Seppelts Para Port are labels that command a great deal of respect in both the Australian and international marketplaces. Recently a magnum of 1979 Penfolds Grange Hermitage was sold by the Isle of Wine for more than $3,000. Commemorative ports also can have a huge appeal for collectors, due to a particular label featuring a sporting personality, football team or horse race, for example. With many auctions starting at a low initial bid of 0.99c, the final price some of these bottles achieve can be surprising. The couple believes that the success of their business, as with any business, is about absolute honesty and integrity. "What the customer buys or bids for on-line must be exactly what they receive in the mail," says Sally. Other really important features of a successful on-line business, according to Sally, are an excellent selection of stock that is easy to browse, a choice of easy payment methods and excellent communication. "Follow this up with professional packing and with safe and timely delivery, and your customers will be back," says Paul. Isle of Wine uses Australia Post for all of its domestic and international deliveries. "When we first considered converting our hobby into a business we had thought that the cost of shipping might be the hurdle we couldn’t overcome," says Sally. However, discovering Australia Post’s Wine Delivery Service, which offers economical shipping rates for wine, meant delivery wasn’t an obstacle. "With Australia Post’s Wine Delivery Service, we are confident about the careful handling of our delicate goods and the safe arrival of wine within a very acceptable time frame," says Sally. And with volumes growing, Isle of Wine has recently upgraded to Post eParcel, which enables the business to print labels, prepare its own shipping manifest and check delivery status via the Internet. "Post eParcel provides us with a parcel lodgement system that helps ease the workload and it gives us the extra peace of mind of a signature on delivery," says Paul. For more information visit www.isleofwine.com.au   About you! ebay - if you are checking out with a purchase from our user ID i_love_wine on eBay.com.au, please note that: Shipping is only AUD18.50 including insurance to any address in Australia for a carton of up to 12 standard bottles. This is a fixed price with Australia Post's Wine Delivery Service whether there are 1, 5 or 12 Bottles in it. There is no extra charge for insurance. We insure to the full value of your carton. Please see below for further details We are happy to mix & match / combine bottles for shipping for you for up to 4 weeks from your first purchase. If you ask us to we will hold your bottles in our cellars for up to a month (as long as you pay as you go) and we will ship them all to you when you are finished, for the one low fixed case price of AUD18.50. The only thing that we ask in return is that you pay as you go! Please add shipping to your first payment. All bottles, pottery crocks and miniatures are sold sealed and unopened Wine, Fortifieds & Spirits that have the word circa or the symbol "@" in their description are dated as accurately as possible. These bottles do not have a date on the label. Certificate/Seals of Authenticity for circa bottles are available if required in most cases. We use many resources to establish an accurate date, including glass manufacturer codes, label databases, cellar notes, net resources and other techniques. We are usually accurate within 12 months. Wine, Fortifieds and Armagnacs that have vintage in their description are generally made with fruit harvested from that year. All listings are for single bottles unless otherwise specified   Cheers and Enjoy Paul and Sally at Isle of Wine