$1000 a bottle for the 2020 Grange? Nick Ryan’s verdict on Penfolds’ 2024 collection

The Australian wine producer may be an iconic brand but does the release of this year’s collection match up?

Nick Ryan delivers his verdict on Penfolds’ 2024 collection. Picture: Jay Town

We need a collective noun for the small and maladjusted group of people who never found a valid purpose in life so ended up writing about wine. Whatever that may be – a “soak”, a “swirl”, a “cirrhosis” – that cohort was gathered in the Barossa Valley last month to preview this year’s Penfolds Collection release, a suite of 25 wines from four continents, with the added bonus of a one-off wine, Bin 180, to mark the company’s 180th birthday. I missed that gathering, so organised a catch-up tasting with chief winemaker Peter Gago at Penfolds’ Magill headquarters. In the collective tasting Gago delivers introductory remarks then steps back, leaving tasters to their own thoughts. But once the wines are tasted, ruminated upon and the notes are written, a question or comment from behind the keyboard unlocks the famed Gago enthusiasm that makes you wonder if the man eats batteries for breakfast.

Gago is right to be pleased with what he and his team have delivered this year. It’s a strong line-up with abundant highlights. Penfolds’ hot streak with chardonnay continues with a newly refined and almost demure Reserve Bin A 2023 (96 points) and a Yattarna 2022 (97) of coiled power and crystalline grace. The international projects continue to evolve with Penfolds II 2022 (95), the blend of cabernet sauvignon from Bordeaux and Coonawarra being the standout.

The collection’s core are the South Australian reds, this year drawn mostly from the 2022 vintage. Standouts include the best Bin 138 GSM (96) ever made; a finely detailed Bin 128 Shiraz (93) reflecting a great Coonawarra vintage; and a brilliantly composed, powerfully precise Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 (97) that takes the gifts of that blessed Coonawarra season and multiplies them tenfold.

And then there’s a little wine called Grange.

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Nick Ryan reviews Penfolds’ newest release.

GRANGE 2020

$1000

If MC Escher made wines, they would be like this, an intricate puzzle of almost infinite dimensions. Panforte and boysenberry, pencil lead and sage. Dutch licorice, mace, five spice. Thurible smoke and cassis. Focus and precision. Sculpted muscle, beautiful definition. Unwavering line and astounding length. You couldn’t knock this off its line with a wrecking ball. 14.5%, 98 points

ST HENRI 2021

$150

At a tasting of St Henri going back to 1958 held in Paris earlier this year, this wine was a standout. At the time I declared it a legend in the making. My position hasn’t changed.

Blue fruits, blueberries and plums, some sweetened espresso, bitter chocolate and baking spices. Effortless flow, high-def tannins. A true great.

14.5%, 98 points

BIN 389 CABERNET SHIRAZ, 2022

$120

The “Baby Grange” epithet pinned to this wine never made sense to me. It may be an inheritor of barrels from its illustrious stablemate but its track record, and its varietal composition, have always moved it out of that shadow in my mind. This is a great 389 – seamless, assured and composed. 14.5%, 95 points