Close
Search
Filters
Critics scores
98 Robert Parker
2021 was a magnificent season in South Australia, one blessed with good yields (a change from the previous several years of low yields and drought conditions), healthy rainfall leading into the season and dry, mild conditions during ripening. Vignerons could not have hoped for better conditions. So here, the 2021 Grange is powerful, ripe, structural yet balanced, long and complex. There is a softness to the middle palate, which speaks to the mildness of the conditions, potentially positioning this as one of the best modern-era Granges. The fruit (94% Shiraz, 6% Cabernet Sauvignon) was sourced from Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and Clare Valley. For critics of this style, my only wish to assist with clarification could be teleportation, together, into a future 30 or 40 years from now. We would drink this wine, where it would still appear fresh and yet would have settled into its finesse and grace as well. It matured for 18 months in American oak, 100% new. 14.5% alcohol, sealed under natural cork.<br/>Erin Larkin
Producer
Penfolds
Since the renaissance of Australian wine in the early 1950s, Penfolds has distinguished themselves early on as one of the most important forerunners. Max Schubert became the Chief Winemaker of the almost 200-year-old estate in 1948, beginning his journey to create Bordeaux inspired wines. Located in South Australia, their key vineyards are spread across the best viticulture regions: Adelaide, the Barossa Valley, the Clare Valley, Coonawarra, the Limestone Coast and McLaren Vale. Responsible for Australia’s most iconic wine, called Grange, which remains at the pinnacle of the estate’s production, has had over five consistent decades of promising quality. Blended primarily of Barossa and McLaren Vale Syrah, with a bit of Cabernet, Grange is aged in American oak, and the end result is a complete and powerful wine, with a strong vocation for aging. Penfolds produces a handful of other top reds, each is more complex than the next, and with fruit coming from selected vineyard sites the wines are characteristically representative of their origins.