Penfolds Grange 2015
Penfolds 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. Taking in fruit from the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Clare Valley and the Magill Estate Grange is matured in new American oak hogsheads for 20 months. Opaque, in colour Grange is an eruption of fruits on the nose. Dark coffee grind, malt and tapenade merge with black earths, almost verging on peat leading to a slurry of dark-skinned berried fruits, flirting with dark liquorice and soy. On the palate, initially dark fruits of a Christmas pudding or fruitcake mix demand attention. But there’s much more to complement these fruits. Notes of ironstone, graphite and iodine alongside formidable, meshed tannins. The oak has entwined itself invisible, yet every barrel is still new, and completion of fermentation off skins in barrel is still Grange modus operandi. Integrated, measured ... and clearly more than one sip required to gain an authentic ‘first-impression’!
