Description
Winemakers Notes
The original and most powerful expression of Penfolds multi-vineyard, multi-district blending philosophy, Grange is arguably Australia’s most celebrated wine and is officially listed as a Heritage Icon of South Australia. Crafted utilising fully-ripe, intensely-flavoured and structured 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. With an unbroken line of vintages from the experimental 1951, Grange clearly demonstrates the synergy between shiraz and the soils and climates of South Australia.
GRAPE VARIETY 98% Shiraz, 2% Cabernet Sauvignon
COLOUR Deep plush garnet throughout – from core to rim
NOSE An indulged aromatic meander: • First in the kitchen – umami expressed primarily via wafts of shiitake mushroom stock, hoisin and XO sauce … enhancing scents of dry-aged beef and game meats. • Then outside – olive-leaf, cardamom, sage and thyme … “a stroll through a South Australian olive grove” … saltbush, acacia, dried and dusty bracken. • To the cellar – fresh and familial lifted formic and barrel-ferment nuances. Followed by a return to reality: • Quite simply, an unmistakable youthful ‘Grange’ nose. Awakened primary fruits and stylish oak interlocked and indistinguishable. As expected.
PALATE Savoury, not fruity. Tastes/flavours remind of slow cooked beef ragout, chicken liver game terrine. Red liquorice also apparent. Integrated oak – spicy, almost ‘non-American’ oak … but it is. As it always is. A core of 100% new Quercus alba. Poised yet powerful. A balanced, tightly-knit and woven structural ‘tapestry’. Not to be constrained by dimension or f rame. Tannins with attitude! Nonetheless respectful. Type? Slatey tannins … alluvial, silty (certainly not muddy!). Long and lingering – tactile impressions indistinguishably and slowly fuse/merge into an aftertaste memory. Until the next sip! A Grange to create new friends – this 2014 offering a subtly different structural mosaic; different tone and timbre.
PEAK DRINKING 2020 – 2045
Critical Acclaim
100 points Decanter
Hill of Grace’s rival for Shiraz supremacy is surely the fabled Grange from Penfold’s, which, in complete contrast, is and has always been, a multiregional blend. It’s opaque in colour, with dense aromas of plums and fruitcake, cloves, raw meat, and mint cake – truly complex if rather overbearing. The palate is similarly bold and full-bodied, with immense tannins though not overblown. Robust and structured, of course, showing great energy and texture, but essentially monolithic. Very long. (SB, 08/2019)
98 points Wine Advocate
Rich, concentrated and intense, the 2014 Grange delivers exactly what we’ve come to expect from this Penfolds icon wine. It’s full-bodied, velvety in feel and loaded with plummy fruit, framed in vanilla and cedar. Dense, powerful and tannic, it should prove to be long lived, even by Grange standards. Gago doesn’t rate the vintage overall that highly, but he says the selection this year for Grange was a bit more stringent and that production levels were just average. There are still over 1,000 cases for the United States. (JC, 10/2018)
98 points Wine Spectator
At first glance, this is a purely indulgent wine, with gobs of creamy, milk chocolate-laden maraschino cherry, raspberry framboise and Earl Grey tea aromas. Then wave after wave of elements start filling in, with toasted cumin, peppermint oil, Kalamata olive and white pepper notes, combining into an almost overwhelming amount of details. Becomes indulgent again on the long, lush finish. *Collectibles* (MW, 01/2019)
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