Penfolds unveils controversial new G3 Grange, priced at $3000 a bottle

PENFOLDS has unveiled a bold new take on Australia’s most famous red — and the ultra-rare bottle, priced at $3000 a bottle, is set to shock the wine world.

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AUSTRALIA’S most famous wine may never be the same again.

On the very day that Penfolds’ latest 2013 Grange goes on sale around Australia for the princely sum of $850 a bottle, the icon wine producer has gone out on a limb and also released a game-changing extra version of the elite South Australian red.

Overnight, it has placed onto the world wine market just 1200 bottles of a new concept Grange titled G3, a multi-vintage mix crafted from the 2008, 2012 and 2014 vintages priced at $3000 for a 750ml bottle.

Penfolds’ $3000-a-bottle G3 red.

It’s the first time Penfolds has released such a radical take on its flagship shiraz, a move which chief winemaker Peter Gago says will create some controversy from traditionalists.

“It’s a pretty bolshie and gutsy step to create such a different turn on this thing we call Grange,” Mr Gago said.

He admits that it was his idea from the start and solely winemaker driven to make the unusual style, and he’s adamant it’s not a marketing gimmick to just create a spike of interest on the day the annual new release Grange hits the market.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a long time — about what to do next,” he said.

“It can’t be a gimmick, and we can’t be expected to come up with a new wine every year.

“But at the same time we can’t just acquiesce to the status quo.”

Penfolds unveiled the G3 overnight in a glittering red carpet affair in Hong Kong at an exclusive private gallery, the Liang Yi Museum, that houses one of the world’s finest collections of Chinese and European antiques.

Magill Estate’s Scott Huggins and Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago in Hong Kong for the launch of and new mixed Grange, G3. Picture: Supplied

The multi-blend Penfolds G3 is set to cause controversy.

The setting in Hong Kong’s bustling Hollywood Rd precinct, where street collectibles sell beside luxury antiques, was an ideal place to launch the new wine in front of not only Asia’s loyal Penfold followers but from all around the world, Mr Gago said.

“The G3 is a genuine luxury item, but it’s also a real wine,” Mr Gago said.

The wine continues a long Penfolds tradition stretching back to the mid 1800s, though almost forgotten now, of blending multiple vintages in fortified wines. Grange has always been a multi-vineyard, multi- regional blend based almost entirely on shiraz but usually with a minute proportion of cabernet sauvignon.

Now the extra dimension on multi-vintages has been added to the G3 template.

“Grange has always been a blend, and now the G3 is a blend of blends,” Mr Gago said.

The new wine contains “significant, but not revealed, proportions” of all three 2008, 2012 and the yet to be released 2014 vintages of the usual Grange offering.

The straight-up 2014 Grange will go on sale in a year’s time.

The two earlier vintages are regarded as among the wine’s best-judged releases, the 2008 a bolder style, the 2012 more “elegant and sophisticated”.

To create the blend, a tiny number of the Penfolds’ winemaking team secretly emptied bottles of the 2008 back into barrels, added the portion of 2012 before it went to bottle, and then to “freshen up” the mix added the required amount of 2014 that was still maturing.

The blend aged further in barrels and then in specially selected high-end bottles for more than a year, developing into a complex and very different Grange style.

“It’s all about the synergy of all three vintages — the sum is greater than the parts,” Mr Gago said.

“We’re hugely excited — there’s a real sense of innovation about the project.”

Due the rarity of the G3, it won’t be sold in retail outlets and is only available from Penfolds’ Magill Estate and Barossa Valley cellar doors and globally through penfolds.com

Tony Love tastes the Penfolds G3

$3000/750ml bottle

No matter what you might think about this unique play on an icon such as Grange, the result of blending “significant proportions” each of the 2008, 2012 and the yet-to-be-released 2014 vintages of the usual Penfolds flagship is a wine that arguably is even more mysterious than its parts.

As a synergistic blend, it is intensely dark in colour as well as rising with the wafts of black berries, redolent too with deeply herbal essences like crushing together mint and star anise entwined with a subtle oak background and meshed with fabulous palate enhancing, medium-grained tannins.

Whether you want to deconstruct this wine into its vintage or regional parts, or not, ultimately this is a truly vibrant Grange that should excite luxury wine aficionados no matter what the cost.