Grape
Shiraz
Ratings
*Penfolds – Icon & Luxury Range
Exceptional – by Langton’s Classification Australian Wine
Robert Parker 92
Jeremy Oliver 96
James Halliday 95
Wine Spectator 94
Tasting Notes
Colour : Deep red.
Nose : Captivating, complex, complete.
Unravelling aromatics unfurl with air – blue fruit
notes entwined with barrel ferment and
maturation elements; nothing singular, always in
tandem. Sweet soy, cola and quince paste high
notes escape from an ethereal layer (aniseed,
fennel and fresh treacle ginger pudding) wafting
above.
Palate : Dark and liqueur chocolate, laced with Moroccan spices. An underlying tar/graphite blackness is lifted by derived fruit/quince pie flavours – a few years earlier they may have been more brashly varietal and elemental. Pronounced tannins sweep across the palate, although they are certainly part of the wine, never obtrusive. Long, layered and compelling, this wine is at the spicier end of the Grange spectrum.
-by Official Website
Penfolds- iconic 2003 Grange is Shiraz blended with 3.5% Cabernet
Sauvignon from Coonawarra. It was aged for 15 months in 100% new
American oak. Opaque purple-colored, it offers up aromas of cedar, cigar
box, leather, Asian spices, and blueberry. On the palate it is layered
but a bit short on depth and grip with only moderate length. It will
evolve for 5-7 years and drink well from 2014 to 2030. This is a good
but not great vintage of Grange making it vastly overpriced.
-by Robert Parker
A very ripe, assertive, profoundly structured and traditional warm year
Grange whose dark, brooding and brambly fruit and lavish oak are
supported by drying, firm and chalky tannin. It?ˉs still a bruising young
wine, with a surprisingly floral and heady, jasmine-like bouquet and
dense layers of blackberries, blueberries, cassis and dark plums backed
by smoky, meaty, dark chocolate and cedary influences. As it opens
further, nuances of treacle, aniseed and graphite slowly emerge. Firm
and dense, its palate simply drips with concentrated flavour, finishing
with the length and balance expected of this label. (Barossa Valley,
McLaren Vale, Langhorne Creek, Magill Estate, Coonawarra, Drink
2023-2033+).
–by Jeremy Oliver
Deep and bright colour; major surprise along the lines of the ’00,
albeit in very different style; here there is density and structure; the
fruit is rich, but not spongy or dead. Ultra careful selection.
-by James Halliday
Supple, ripe and generous with its blueberry, plum and mocha flavors,
riding easily over finely wrought tannins and extending into the long,
expressive finish. Rich, complex and evocative, this has plenty of
flavor packed into a beautifully balanced package. Drink now through
2020. 680 cases imported.
-by Wine Spectator