Penfolds Grange
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Penfolds Grange (until the 1989 vintage labelled Penfolds Grange Hermitage) is a famous, prestigious and expensive Australian wine, made predominantly from the Shiraz grape and usually a small percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon. It is widely regarded as one of the premier red wines of the world. The term "Hermitage" was commonly used in Australia as a synonym for Shiraz. In 1953 two version of Grange were made, one 87% Shiraz and 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, the other 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
The first vintage of Penfolds Grange was made on an experimental basis in 1951 by winemaker Max Schubert, while he was employed by Penfolds Wines. Individual bottles of the 1951 vintage are still held by collectors; one sold at auction in 2004 for approximately A$50,000. The first vintage to be commercially released was the 1952. Penfolds Grange was styled as a powerful still wine in an age when fortified wines were in fashion. Negative reviews by wine critics and poor commercial prospects for the wine led Penfolds management in 1957 to forbid Schubert from producing Penfolds Grange, but Schubert persisted in secret through 1959. As the initial vintages aged, however, their true value became appreciated, and in 1960 management instructed Schubert to re-start production, oblivious to the fact that Schubert had not missed a vintage.
The great 1955 vintage was submitted to competitions beginning in 1962 and over the years has won more than 50 gold medals. The vintage of 1971 won first prize in Shiraz at the Wine Olympics in Paris, just three years after the historic Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 showed that New World wines could beat France's best in blind tastings. The 1990 vintage was named 'Red Wine of the Year' by the Wine Spectator magazine in 1995, which later rated the 1998 vintage 99 points out of a possible 100. Wine critic Hugh Johnson has called Grange the only First Growth of the Southern Hemisphere. The influential wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr., who is well known for his love of Bordeaux wines, has written that Grange "has replaced Bordeaux's Pétrus as the worlds most exotic and concentrated wine" [1].
Penfolds Grange also carries a Bin designation, referring to its storage location in Penfolds cellars while aging. 1951 was Bin 1, 1952 was Bin 4, and later vintages carried various designations. By 1964 the designation was standardized as "Bin 95."
Penfolds Grange is admired for its rare combination of massive concentration and power, exquisite balance and complex fragrance. It is also unusual among the world's top red wines in that it may be enjoyably consumed immediately upon release (usually five years after vintage). However, bottles are rarely opened so soon: Penfolds' guide to cellaring, The Rewards of Patience (5th Edition), recommends the 2001 vintage be consumed only beginning in 2010 and predicts its "window of enjoyment" will extend until 2040. The classic 1976 vintage is predicted to last through 2030.
Unlike most expensive cult wines from the Old World, which are from single vineyards or even small plots (called blocks) within vineyards, Grange is made from carefully selected grapes from a wide area, using the best quality available. This means that the precise composition of the wine will change from year to year and it is the branding and expertise of the winemaking which purchasers value, rather than the qualities of the specific places where the grapes are grown or the particular vines. The quantity of Penfolds Grange produced varies considerably from year to year and is a carefully guarded secret. Despite the vagaries of grape sourcing and vintage variation due to growing conditions, there is a consistent and recognisable "Penfolds Grange" style which continues to entrance collectors.
In May 2005, ownership of the Penfolds brand, along with its museum collection of Penfolds Grange, passed to Foster's Group upon its acquisition of the previous owner, Southcorp Limited.
[edit] See also
[edit] Reference
- Taber, George M. Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine. NY: Scribner, 2005.
[edit] External links
- Penfolds
- Grange and see especially (from link) "The Story of Grange" written by Max Schubert
- Grange Tastings a selection of Grange tasting notes for the 1966, 1971 and 1976 - 1997 vintages.
- The globe in a glass. The Economist (London), December 16, 1999 [2].
