99DecanterConfession: Grange has never been my favourite of the Penfolds portfolio (I am a St Henri girl) but Ive been converted. And if ever a vintage were to turn me, 2021 was always going to be the one, heralded by many in South Australia as a vintage of a lifetime. Sourced from sites across the Barossa Valley (66%), McLaren Vale (26%) and Clare Valley (8%), it is a blend of 94% Shiraz and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon, which spends 18 months in 100% new American oak hogsheads, and has already integrated seamlessly into the opulent fruit. My initial impressions, hurriedly typed, start with a string of descriptors that detail just how seductive it is already: Wow! Exotic, inky, generous, silky, ripe, velvety. Immense. Incredible. The whole package! (My colleague Georgie Hindle wrote: Classy and so sophisticated. Like looking at a gorgeous man in a tuxedo.) The trademark Grange volatile acidity presents itself as macerated balsamic strawberries, tapenade and tarmac, joining mouth-filling silky tannins and sumptuous aromas and flavors of boysenberry, root beer, mocha, salted licorice and crme caramel. If you can ignore its siren call from the cellar, it easily has three to five decades of life ahead.
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