Penfolds Grange 2017
- 98
- $950
- Drink by: 2025 - 2055
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One of those Granges that is immediately appealing. Is this the result of a long ripening period across the Barossa and McLaren Vale, the sources of fruit? Who knows, but there is definitely a case for thinking this is one of the more charming Granges to grace the table.
Impossibly deep purple, dense and moves slow in the glass. The scent is less fruit-inspired, more complex-driven: tight and focussed, everything is dark and exotic and malty and muscular. The palate comes therefore as a bit of a surprise. The sweet fruit rises to meet your lips; the violets and florals, the blackberries, blueberries, macerated raspberries, panforte, and oh so beguiling spice.
The 2017 is all about shiraz – no cabernet to be seen – and so it goes off down a shiraz lane of smoothness and near opulence, well, opulence is a relative term in the Grange vernacular, especially so early in the game. And then the tight tannins arrive on the scene, bringing everything together firmly, resolutely. Of course, having said all of that I am not suggesting we break open a bottle this year. But you can be confident to do it well before it reaches 10. It’s one hell of a charmer.
Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.
