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Wine Description
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
1970 Grange Hermitage Penfolds
A very mild and dry year with rainfall 40% less than normal. Despite carrying many different Bin numbers in the early years, Grange was always labelled Bin 95 from the 1970 vintage. This wine is a favourite of Don Ditter, who worked at Penfolds from 1946 and succeeded Max Schubert as Chief Winemaker in 1975.
The 1970 Grange is a blend of 90% Shiraz and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon with particularly low alcohol for a Grange (11.5%).
Bought from a Winebid Australian Auction with several other Granges from the ‘70s. It came in excellent condition and the level was bottom-neck.
Healthy, medium-dark colour. Open, forthcoming mature nose with flavour of sweet caramel and toffee. Leathery, quite hard and a bit dry. Relatively rich and long with some sweet, ripe fruit, but drying out a bit.
After tasting more than 40 different Grange vintages, this one is certainly below the average quality of this giant and normally well-balanced wine. The more often I taste this wine, the more I feel that something is missing here – it always left me wishing for something more?