1951 Penfolds Grange: Australia’s most widely celebrated wine
A single bottle of 1951 Penfolds Grange has sold at auction for a record breaking price, cementing itself as Australia’s most celebrated wine.
A mind that has managed to retain some curiosity amid the more injurious bombardments coming its way can’t help wonder what the late Max Schubert might make of a single bottle of a wine he made as a bit of an experiment being sold for a price that would’ve paid off his mortgage.
Earlier this week a single bottle of the 1951 Penfolds Grange, signed by the man himself, sold at auction for $142,131, a new record for the wine made to explore Schubert’s ambition for a truly age-worthy Australian dry red and given away to friends and colleagues, never commercially sold.
The price reflects the wine’s position as the starting point in the remarkable story of Australia’s most widely celebrated wine.
Schubert had been sent by Penfolds to post-war Europe primarily to observe fortified wine production methods on the Iberian Peninsula, but it was a detour through Bordeaux that really got him thinking.
The wines he tried there - dry reds fermented and matured in smaller oak barrels with the serious structure that gave the wine a capacity to age across multiple decades - posed a question.
Could he do the same thing back home and produce a wine of similar stature and ambition that reflected, and celebrated, its Australian origins?
For a while that answer was in doubt.
Early vintages were greeted with confusion, in some cases outright condemnation, and Penfolds management of the time ordered Schubert to cease production in 1957.
The story of how Schubert and his ally in management, Jeffrey Penfold-Hyland, conspired to keep going and produced the 57, 58 and 59 vintages in secret has become part of Australian winemaking legend.
It wasn’t until the early 1960s when the storied 1955 vintage hit its straps and cut a swathe through the wine show circuit that Max’s vision was really vindicated and Grange’s ascent to the lofty position it now holds really began.
Seventy years after that first vintage Grange is firmly established in the top tier of the world’s fine wines, unquestionably the best known Australian fine wine in global markets.
On August 5, Penfolds will release, alongside a raft of other wines from their premium portfolio, the 2017 Grange, a restrained, vintage-responsive expression of the style first envisioned by Schubert all those years ago.
It is, as usual, the star of the release and impressions of that wine, and other highlights follow.
Reserve Bin A Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills 2020, $125
Fine florals as a beguiling first impression. Jasmine and honeysuckle, some citrus blossom, too. This is really pretty.
White peach and grapefruit pith and the faintest waft of nuts subjected to the lightest possible toast.
It’s lithe and assured on the palate, a gentle mealiness giving a textural twist, long and very pure on the finish.
Yattarna Chardonnay 2019, Multi-Region, $175
Hugely complex aromatic announcement, popcorn and orange sherbet, crushed oyster shell and bees wax, fresh straw and pale shortbread.
The aromatic effusiveness tightens and clarifies through a palate driven by grapefruit and waxy lemon pith.
Ethereally sustained.
Bin 138 SGM, Barossa Valley 2019, $60
With a large proportion of shiraz, and mataro always punching above its weight in wines like these, this is a wine favouring the darker axes on which this blend can spin.
A grippy, broody wine packed with licorice and pipe tobacco, some roast meats and dark earth, boudin noir and preserved plums.
Bin 128 Shiraz, Coonawarra 2019, $60
A perennial favourite of mine, a black sheep, a gentle nod to the pleasures of Coonawarra shiraz.
Bright plums, soft licorice, fennel seed and sage, a smidge of lightly sprinkled pepper.
Deftly sculpted palate, dark berries and soft spice. Fine-grained tannins shaping a gently sustained finish.
Bin 28 Shiraz, Multi-Region 2019, $50
Penfolds Shiraz Style 101.
Very polished, ripe red fruits, warm red earth. Some cherry chocolate there, too.
Supple and assured. Generously fleshy but never flabby, richness with restraint.
Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz, Multi-Region 2019, $100
A nose to seduce the nostalgic sweet-tooth, mint patties and coconut roughs leading in to some preserved plum, dry rosemary and cold tea characters.
It’s firm-footed and upright, with brambly fruit draped over that structural frame with elements of dark chocolate, soft licorice and graphite setting down layers of complexity.
Fine, dusty length.
St Henri Shiraz, Multi-Region 2018, $135
Bluer fruits, as per the St Henri template, delicate plums, ripe blueberries, almost a hint of framboise.
Some snapped twig and dry herb, a crack of black pepper, too.
This is a wine of precision and latent energy, finely sculpted and assured. A confident momentum across the palate, a supple slide to the finish. Tight, very finely grained tannins etched in intricate lattice.
A great St Henri.
Grange 2017
A relatively reticent Grange, a reflection of the cooler vintage and a slightly more softly spoken treatise on the classic Grange style.
Boysenberry and blackberry, dutch licorice and mace. Bitter chocolate, boudin noir, Chinese preserved olive and suggestions of that special junction where smoke starts to cure meat.
The palate is muscular, but not muscle-bound, powerful but understanding that great power brings with it great responsibility. More Peter Parker than Robert Parker.
This wine follows a couple of “big statement” Granges from more rambunctious vintages and, for a while at least, might live in the substantial shadows they throw. This is one of those Granges that will arrive quietly but establish its bona fides over a long period of time, revealing its charm for decades to come.
Just as Max would’ve wanted.