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Uutiset
VINEYARD REGION Magill Estate (Adelaide), Morphett Vale
VINTAGE CONDITIONS Cool to mild growing season followed by a generally warm vintage.
GRAPE VARIETY Shiraz (90%), Cabernet Sauvignon (10%)
MATURATION Eighteen months in used American oak hogsheads.
WINE ANALYSIS Alc/Vol: 12.50%
Acidity: 5.20g/L
pH: 3.62
LAST TASTED 2008
PEAK DRINKING Now
FOOD MATCHES Mature cheddar cheese
Winemaker comments by,Penfolds Rewards of Patience, Edition VI
COLOUR Deep brick red.
NOSE Dark cherry/bitter chocolate/demi-glace aromas wiht touches of marmalade.
PALATE The wine is very firm with dark cherry/bitter chocolate/mocha/herb garden flavours and grained chalky - almost stemmy - tannins. Finishes oily dry but it still has great flavour length.
Viinin Kuvailu
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.
Wine Information
1959 Blend: Magill Estate (Adelaide) Morphett Vale (Adelaide) Kalimna Vineyard (Barossa Valley) Blend.
Cool to mild growing season followed by a warm dry vintage. Released as Bin 95 (also Bins 46 and 49)
Penfolds was founded by a young English doctor who migrated to one of his country's most distant colonies over a century and a half ago. Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold was born in 1811, the youngest of 11 children. He studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, graduating in 1838.
In 1844 Dr Penfold and his wife Mary purchased the Mackgill estate, “comprising 500 acres of the choicest land.” By all accounts it was Mary Penfold who was responsible for the management and early winemaking responsibilities of the fledgling wine estate. Initially the wines - made from grenache – were prescribed as tonic wines for anaemic patients and the famous Penfolds slogan ‘1844 to evermore’ harks back to its origins as a prescribed tonic.
By 1870 the Grange vineyard comprised over 60 acres with several different grape varieties including grenache, verdelho, mataro (mourvèdre), frontignac and pedro ximenez. The estate was producing both sweet and dry red wine and white table wines, with a growing market in the eastern Australian colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. A catalogue from 1889 lists wines from the Grange and Magill vineyards as Mataro, Grenache, Constantia, Grange Port, Frontignac, Grange Tawny, Pedro Ximenes, Tokay, Madeira, Grange Sherry and Muscadine. The catalogue adds: “We have also light red and white dinner wines of claret and riesling types, suitable for use in Clubs.”
Penfolds and Co. – the newly formed partnership of Mary Penfold and her son-in-law Thomas Hyland and her cellar manager Joseph Gillard – now claimed to be producing over one-third of South Australia’s wine. Mary Penfold passed away in 1896 after a remarkable contribution to Australia’s wine industry.
Vuosikerta 1959
Australia / A cool dry growing season with average rainfall produced “strong” reds despite the challenge of a wet February and March.
In 1959 there were 7,171 hectares of vineyards in Barossa and 29,030 tonnes of wine grapes were crushed in that vintage.
Muscat Gordo was still South Australia’s “most used” wine grape. As well as being used for dried raisin and table grape consumption it was a mainstay of the fortified wine industry.
The first fully automatic sterile bottling line, capable of processing 200 dozen bottles per hour, was commissioned at Orlando by Henry Deinhardt.
John Vickery and Reg Shipster pioneered skin cooling methods at Leo Buring’s Chateau Leonay winery. This was the first attempt at cool fermentation and paved the way for improving the quality of red and white wines.
Peter Lehmann was appointed winemaker-manager at Saltram Wines.
