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  • Country ranking ?

    115
  • Producer ranking ?

    71
  • Decanting time

    5h
  • When to drink

    now to 2045
  • Food Pairing

    Pressed guinea fowl with young vegetables

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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The Story

Grange is arguably Australia’s most celebrated wine and is officially listed as a Heritage Icon of South Australia. Grange boasts an unbroken line of vintages from the experimental 1951 and clearly demonstrates the synergy between Shiraz and the soils and climates of South Australia. Grange utilises fully-ripe, intensely-flavoured and textured Shiraz grapes. The result is a unique Australian style that is now recognised as one of the most consistent of the world’s great wines. The Grange style is the original and most powerful expression of Penfolds multi-vineyard, multi-district, blending philosophy.

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Wine Information

In 2007 Grange was ranked 15th most tradable wine in the world by Liv-Ex – the London Wine Exchange; “with relatively high production and price, and continued support from Robert Parker, and a series of great wines since 2000, its rise up the charts is understandable.” The Wall Street Journal even published a Dow Jones Grange Index.
The accompanying text said “Wine lovers remember their first Grange the way they remember their first kiss!” Grange is the only wine to be heritage listed by the South Australian National Trust.
It also heads up the highly influential and internationally recognized Langton’s Classification of Australian wine – in recognition of Grange’s cornerstone presence of the secondary wine market. It continues to generate considerable collector interest and millions of dollars of auction revenue per year.


Penfolds Grange Hermitage


It took 10 years from the time the first experimental Grange was made before the wine gained general acceptance and the prejudices were overcome.

In 1949 a young Australian wine maker from Penfolds, Max Schubert, was sent to Jerez, Spain to learn the art of making sherry. At the time the voyage between continents was made without haste by ocean liners. On his way back home, as the ship stopped in the harbor of Bordeaux, Max decided to take advantage of the opportunity and take a short holiday in the most famous wine area of France. With the help of his recommendations and eagerness the young man got a chance to acquaint with the local wine production through the mighty Cruse wine family. Christian Cruse took Max under his wings and presented him with the secrets of wine production by means of the splendid vintage 1949.
Max Schubert returned to Australia and Penfolds favorably impressed and determined to produce an Australian red wine that would last for decades and would in quality be comparable to the famous Bordeaux wines.
The task was not easy since the classic Bordeaux was in France produced by mixing Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. In Australia those refined grapes did not exist, so Max had to settle for the local Shiraz which was usually used only in the production of the regional, fortified port wine. There were also no French oak casks at hand, but having managed to purchase some American ones Max Schubert decided to use them. In them he matured the first, experimental 1951 vintage of Grange for 18 months before bottling.
In 1959 came the time to introduce that first vintage of Grange into the market. To honor the occasion Penfolds arranged a tasting where authoritative local wine connoisseurs had the opportunity to taste all five first vintages (1951-1956). The event ended in disaster; no one liked the wine nor was willing to pay for it. The criticism was mordant and one of the best known and appreciated wine experts present came to congratulate Max sarcastically: “Schubert, I congratulate you. This is very good, dry port that nobody in his right mind will not buy, let alone drink."
Although public opinion did not differ much from that singular one, Max did not lose his courage and arranged several tastings with Grange around the country. Though the results were somewhat better, they were still quite depressing. The Penfolds management decided to shut down the rather costly production of Grange the next year. Luckily one of the owners still saw some possibilities with Grange and gave Max permission to continue the production in small scale, and in secret from the others.
After many years of silence in 1962 Penfolds took part in the grand wine show in Sydney with the 1955 Grange and won the gold medal. From that moment started the rewriting of Australian wine history.

Grange has won over 120 gold medals in wine shows, a fact that has made it the most awarded in the whole wine world, and in 1995 for example Wine Spectator chose it as the best wine of the world. A few years later in the same publication Grange 1955 was picked as one of the best wines of all time. Parker has stated that “Penfolds Grange takes opulence and decadence to the limits, and for that reason it has replaced Bordeaux´s Pétrus as the world´s most exotic and concentrated wine", so the triumphal march has but continued.

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Tasting note

color

Deep, Purple and Clear

ending

Long, Round and Extensive

flavors

Blackberry, Toasty, Blackcurrant, Cardamom, Licorice and Vanilla

nose

Youthful, Complex, Fresh and Opulent

taste

Average in Acidity, Warming, High tannin, Concentrated, Youthful, Full-bodied and Dry

Written Notes

Opaque ruby. A heady, intensely perfumed bouquet evokes cherry compote, cassis, violet, pipe tobacco and smoky, vanillin oak. Deeply pitched dark fruit flavors show liqueur-like power, with floral pastille, licorice and spicecake nuances building in the glass. Tannins come up with air but are quickly absorbed by this wine's lush fruit. Smoky and sweet on the finish, which lingers with outstanding persistence.

 

  • 95p

Blackish crimson. Tricky vintage! Intense purple fruit notes on the nose. Very opulent and flattering. Crushed-ants sensation is alive and well! Firm finish. Luscious fruit and dry tannins in magnificent combat. Medicinal. Great sumptuous finish.

  • 95p

Deep purple crimson colour. Fresh liquorice, cola, blackberry, mocha, herb garden aromas and malty new oak. Deep set blackberry, sweet fruit, mocha, herb flavours, fine slinky dry - slightly grippy tannins, malty, toasty oak. Finishes chocolaty al-dente firm. Quite brambly. Very elemental and muscular with underlying sweet fruit. Will last at least 25 years!

  • 97p
As a five year-old, dense vivid red—impenetrable almost to the rim. Unmistakably Grange—formic, ripe, pungent, confronting. Core: darker elements—soy/cola/peat/bcoal-dust/Dutch black liquorice with sesame/sea-weed/quince paste. Beneath: coffee-grind/mocha/ bitter chocolate (from oak?). Above: African spices coupled with a fleeting and appealing glacial waft. At once, balanced and accessible; fresh and tight. A structural and textural continuum—no beginning or end, no gaps. Complete. In an attempt to define the palate profile... Flavours: dates, persimmon, roasted nuts … freshly baked pecan-pie/Portuguese custard tart. Oak: omnipresent, yet neither prominent nor ostentatious—completely assimilated. Tannins: neither obstructive nor aggressive, yet effortlessly conveying flavours. Yes, maturation of 21 months in barrel and three years in bottle, has moulded quite the structural and tactile Grange package.
Deep ruby. Scented, spices, ripe plums and red berries nose, leather. Fresh acidity, ripe tannins, massive fruit and body, velvety texture, rich and again fairly refreshing, long. 92
  • 92p
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Information

Origin

Magill, South Australia

Vintage Quality

Above Average

Value For Money

Good

Investment potential

Average

Fake factory

None

Glass time

2h

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Special BIN 111A Shiraz

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Thienot x Penfolds Blanc de Noirs Lot 3-175

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Inside Information

This was released on the 3rd of May 2012. Retailers in Australia were discounting as low as $490 with a RRP of $625. During 2012 it traded on the Australian secondary market in the range between $320 to $420.

 

Parker 95 points: The 2007 Penfolds Grange is comprised of 97% Shiraz and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon coming predominately from Barossa vineyards with smaller proportions from Magill Estate and McLaren Vale. It was matured for 21 months in 100% new American oak hogsheads. Very deep garnet-purple in color, the nose is intensely scented of vibrant blueberry preserve, mulberry and kirsch aromas over hints of cedar, mocha, vanilla and anise. The full bodied palate is richly fruited with pure black berry and baking spice flavors offset by crisp acidity and a firm level of velvety tannins, finishing long. This is quite an opulent, forward Grange, which is very tempting to drink now, though of course will reward at least 5-10 years of cellaring and should keep to 2030+.

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