Penfolds

Grange Shiraz 2021

• 

  Vintage 2021
  99 points

Unanimously acclaimed by the Dan Murphy Wine Panel as a truly worthy candidate to carry the famous Grange name. Opulent, almost decadent, concentrated fleshy dark fruit, swirling with asian spices, black tea, mocha, touches of elevating VA (a Grange tradition), and finishing like a freight train gliding into the station.

• 

  Vintage 2021
  100 points

Always the focus of the Collection, especially so when it hails from what has become a legendary vintage. The expectations for the 2021 Grange were simply that this had to be a great Grange. Anything short of that might even be deemed a failure and this is indeed an extraordinary Grange. Quite simply, a wow wine. As always, a variety of regions contributed – the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and Clare Valley. As is usual, though not inevitable, there is a dollop of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, 6% for 2021, and the wine spent a year and a half maturing in new American hogsheads. No wonder Peter Gago’s response was a face-splitting smile and to confirm he was “very, very pleased”.Maroon black in hue, one simply gets lost in the nose, just endlessly sniffing the most glorious cassis notes, along with black fruits, blueberries, coffee beans, aniseed, mulberries, delicatessen meats, tobacco leaves, plums and graphite. The wine is seamless, intense and immaculate with knife-edge balance. It simply dances with joy. There oak is there, undeniably, but it is so well handled that you almost have to think twice. So complex already, and yet so harmonious and decadent. Silky tannins, bright acidity, the intensity never wavers for an instant and there is incredible length – Rutherglen muscat length. This is as close to a perfect Grange as I can imagine. Fifty years, if you think you can last that long (or want very grateful grandkids). A Lord-take-me-now wine, if ever there was one. 100 -Ken Gargett