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Tasting notes
Fruit from Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Magill, McLaren Vale and Coonawarra. Generally good growing season with fine warm conditions followed by a cool vintage. Another unusual vintage in that the grapes ripened late, but evenly. 96% Shiraz, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon. 14 months in new American oak hogsheads. pH 3.60, TA 6.0 g/l. Dark ruby with a black core. Rich and warm and attractively medicinal. Sweet and rich. Fresh finish. Very well balanced. Thicker in the middle than claret but not on the end. Black pepper. (JR)
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
The least impressive, but still a very great wine, is the dark garnet-hued 1980. Still a young wine at age 29, it exhibits massive earthy, meaty, bacon fat notes intermixed with notions of scorched earth, blackberries, currants, pepper, and spice. Full and rich with slightly rustic tannins, it has a good 20 years of life ahead of it. Grange, Penfolds’ flagship wine, is, by many accounts, the most renowned and world-famous wine produced in Australia, and these six vintages from my cellar all acquitted themselves well. These wines are almost always Shiraz, but many vintages include less than 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and there are cross-appellations blends from vineyards in the Barossa and McLaren Vale.
The least impressive, but still a very great wine, is the dark garnet-hued 1980. Still a young wine at age 29, it exhibits massive earthy, meaty, bacon fat notes intermixed with notions of scorched earth, blackberries, currants, pepper, and spice. Full and rich with slightly rustic tannins, it has a good 20 years of life ahead of it. Jun 2009, www.robertparker.com
About the producer
Penfolds is Australia’s most famous wine producer, known best for their iconic top wine, Grange. First produced commercially in 1952, Grange has since gone on to become one of the world’s most famous fine wines. In 2001, the wine was listed as an Australian heritage icon.