It's a club that has been in existence for more than half a century, is little known to most people and way past exclusive - just 23 members.
And there's no sign of that changing any time soon. To join you must be invited as a guest, impress the members, then wait for a current member to retire or, well... turn up his toes.
Yes, 'his' toes - it's all men.
Welcome to Newcastle's Kirkton Wine Club - surely the most hard-core wine group anywhere in Australia.
These are men who have a serious passion for wine, educated palates and, it needs to be said, pretty deep pockets.
The longest serving member is Fishing Point's Roger Lundy, one of two life members. He joined in February 1974, about three months after the club's inception.
MINER ALL HIS LIFE
"I got my life membership when I'd chalked up 50 years with the club," he says. "I'm 80 now and have been collecting wine for 63 years."
A miner all his working life - he was born and raised in Bellbird - it was a chance to make a few bob on the side that sparked his lifelong love affair.
"I was a kid and some people from Drayton's came to the mine site looking for grape pickers," Roger recalls.
"We knocked off at 2.30, so I thought why not?
"At the end of the day they would crack some bottles of wine for the pickers - that's where it started.
"Then we had the option of being paid with wine, which I jumped at. I started sipping wine at night and have been doing it ever since."
A wine tragic was fermenting.
KIRKTON WINE CLUB
Fast forward a few years and the recently started Kirkton Wine Club was a natural progression.
The club has a monthly tasting on the first Tuesday of every month, except for Melbourne Cup day, of course. Priorities. Members take turns at hosting, pick the theme and then supply all 20 to 25 wines that will be blind tasted on the night, which are then dissected and discussed.
Tasting glasses have a plimsoll line to ensure exactly 23 pours per bottle.
"I've been to 95 per cent of the tastings over those 50 years... 20 to 25 wines each time... you work it out, but it's a lot of wine," Roger says.
If not for a recent cancer scare, that 95 per cent figure would no doubt be higher, but he's on the mend now.
"We have a website (kirkton.com.au) that has all the tastings we've done - some have been unbelievable, mind blowing quality. Not just from Australia, but First Growth Bordeaux, Burgundies, you name it. You should take a look."
Mind you, Roger is taking the other members' word for it... he doesn't have a computer or mobile phone for that matter, so websites are a black hole to him.
"I'm 80 years old mate."
He recalled one member who wanted a Spanish wine theme and flew to Spain where he purchased more than $5000 worth of the country's finest to share with other members.
Each year the club gives out an award for best tasting night, and the most successful taster - Roger has won both.
"I won with a tasting of Lake's Folly and Tyrrell's Vat 47 chardonnays. Some good wines there," he recalls.
He's done others that didn't go so well.
"I did another years ago that was based on an Australian region - I won't tell you which - and the wines were pretty average. The members were fine with it though, because I'd worked hard to source the best wines available.
"That's important... you must put your best effort in."
TOP TASTER
To be top taster among these palates speaks volumes for his wine knowledge.
He is the only member of the club to hold the prestigious Purple Ribbon for wine tasters.
"It's international and hard to get, very prestigious. It was held at Rothbury Estate - a blind tasting of 10 wines from around the world, then you'd have to write an essay and so on.
"There are only 52 Purple Ribbon holders. I tried four or five times before I finally got it."
At its largest Roger had "about 2000" bottles in his cellar. These days it's half that.
"I know I won't drink them all but I still love getting a good bottle in there. You drink one and it brings back memories."
His last big success was getting hold of a few bottles of the highly acclaimed 2018 Penfold's St Henri shiraz.
"Sensational wine. It got 100 out of 100 from a number of judges I rate highly, so I did a bit of chasing and managed to get four bottles. I had one the other night."
It should be said that there have been "one or two occasions" where a member is asked to leave the club.
"Usually it's for not attending tastings regularly enough," he says. "The feeling is they're taking the place of guys who have waited years to get in."
A Hunter winemaking legend, the now deceased Karl Stockhausen, had the most highly tuned palate he's seen.
"He was unbelievable. An unassuming man, but with blind tasting he'd get it right nine out of 10. Often you'd think he's had to have seen the bottle."
ALL-TIME FAVOURITES
Stockhausen is also responsible for two of Roger's all-time favourite wines, both when he was winemaker at Lindeman's.
"His 1961 Bin 1616 semillon - I've never tasted anything like it before or since.
"And he made a 1959 Bin 1590 shiraz... I saw one sold not long ago at $2500. It was a magnificent wine."
And best overall wine? "Seppeltsfield 100-year-old Para (tawny). Unbelievable. The intensity of flavour was mind-blowing. Like treacle."
He loves his Hunter semillons aged, prefers Eden Valley riesling to Clare Valley, Chablis to white burgundy, buys a lot of Rhone reds, and hates overoaked chardonnay - "you need a fork to get the damn stuff out of the bottle."
He also believes verdelho is ridiculously undervalued in the Hunter.
"They make it too fruity to suit consumers. But it can age really gracefully. I've tasted 10-year-old verdelhos alongside 10-year-old semillons and it's almost impossible to tell them apart."
The most he's paid for a wine is $2000 "at auction for a 1924 second growth Bordeaux. Stunning".
But don't be fooled by price.
"Blind tastings show how stupid you can be. Often it will be the $40 bottle that's the star of the tasting, not the $300 bottle."
It's for that reason after grocery shopping every Monday he goes in to the Aldi store next door and buys one bottle of whatever's new on the shelves.
"There's some bargains there. Some I haven't liked and poured out, too. But I'll happily drink a $12 wine if the value is there."
However you look at it, for wine people an invite to the backyard barbecue at Roger Lundy's house may just be the hottest ticket in town.
