Description

Penfolds Grange Shiraz Bin 95 2015

100pts – James Suckling

OVERVIEW

Grange is arguably Australia’s most celebrated wine and is officially listed as a Heritage Icon of South Australia. Grange boasts an unbroken line of vintages from the experimental 1951 and clearly demonstrates the synergy between Shiraz and the soils and climates of South Australia. Penfolds Grange utilises fully-ripe, intensely-flavoured and textured Shiraz grapes. The result is a unique Australian style that is now recognized as one of the most consistent of the world’s great wines. The Grange style is the original and most powerful expression of Penfolds multi-vineyard, multi-district, blending philosophy.

GRAPE VARIETY

98 percent shiraz, 2 percent cabernet sauvignon. Voted Wine of the Year by US lifestyle magazine Robb Report in June 2020.

VINEYARD REGION

Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Clare Valley, Magill Estate.

WINE ANALYSIS

Alc/Vol: 14.5%, Acidity: 6.6 g/L, pH: 3.53.

MATURATION

18 months in 100% new American oak hogsheads.

VINTAGE CONDITIONS

Near-optimum rainfall over winter, followed by dry, mild conditions over spring provided a good environment for budburst and an ideal start to the growing season with canopies developing well. Climatic conditions favored flowering and set with mild and calm weather, however there was some shatter in Shiraz across parts of the state resulting in small crops for many regions. Some early to mid-December summer rainfall was followed by conditions drying up very quickly and continuing until the end of February. Summer was hot with some extreme heat but cool conditions returned in February and March, allowing the fruit to ripen across a long harvest with balanced acidities and excellent tannin ripeness. An elegant, yet still powerful follow up to the conditions brought about in the preceding 2008 vintage.

COLOUR

“Inky deep with a sweet core of ripe sweet black fruits and coating, quite grippy tannins.” – Fongyee Walker MW

NOSE

At once Grange – formic, assertive, powerful… with overt barrel-ferment markers. Bright, and noticeably fragrant/perfumed at this time of tasting, in its fifth year immediately prior to release. Racy red fruits clasp onto red liquorice, aniseed aromatics. Red meats (corned beef ?) with pepper and spice, rumtopf. Patiently, panforte/mascarpone/malt/dried fig aromatics appear in a second wave. No hurry – the curtain is up, the stage reserved for decades!

TASTE DESCRIPTION

Deep crimson. Fresh blackberry, blackcurrant, red cherry, dark chocolate and mocha aromas with herb garden and star anise notes. Generous and supple with inky dark cherry, blackberry pastille and mulberry fruits, fine graphite textures, inky mid-palate complexity and fresh underlying mocha/crème brûlée oak. Silken, sinuous and beautifully integrated with extraordinarily restrained power and wonderful mineral length. Finishes with a firm chocolaty plume. Not as substantial as 2014 but more classic in structure like the Claret style first envisaged. Is it 1963 all over again?

PEAK DRINKING

Drinking well, but will improve with time. Peak drinking 2030 to 2080.