Penfolds Grange Bin 95
From Barossa Valley, Coonawarra, McLaren Vale, Magill
| Vintage: | 2015 |
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| Description: | James Suckling Top 100 Wines Of Australia 2019: #1. James Suckling Top 100 Wines Of 2019: #84. "Distinctive and powerful, yet still elegant, showing restraint despite the dense and generous flavors. Precise notes of dark chocolate, maraschino cherry, mahogany and toasted coconut complement the core of wild blackberry and blueberry fruit. The tannins are smooth and polished, delivering some tug on the finish, which persists as subtle hints of dried lavender and white pepper linger. Drink now through 2040. 879 cases imported. -mw" (ws). "The nose of the 2015 Grange features the wine's characteristic lifted aromas, joined by pronounced American oak influence and bold blackberry fruit, plus hints of red meat, raspberries, asphalt and vanilla. It's dense and concentrated on the palate, full-bodied yet balanced and firm, with a rich, velvety texture and long, plush finish. Don't expect great complexity at this stage-it's much too young to show much more than the primary fruit and oak elements-but this is a Grange that should easily go three or four decades. It's always a treat to sit with Chief Winemaker Peter Gago and taste through the latest releases from Penfolds. Despite losing one of his suitcases (thankfully, not the one with the newly bottled 2019 Bin 51 Riesling), he was in good humor, having just gone on a Manhattan clothes-shopping spree. The bulk of this year's wines come from the challenging 2017 vintage, but with the wide net Penfolds casts to source fruit, the winery seems capable of maintaining a remarkable degree of consistency. There are always a few wines from years on either side as well. Standouts this year include the dense, age-worthy 2016 St Henri Shiraz. This is a wine that never sees new, small-format oak, as it is aged in large oak vats. The 2017 Rwt Shiraz (all Barossa Valley, all French oak) is a perennial favorite of mine, and it is reassuringly excellent. These wines differ stylistically from one another and from the flagship Grange, which is aged in new American oak hogsheads. This year's Grange release is the 2015, another strong effort. The biggest splash among this year's lineup is the debut of a new $1,700 Shiraz. The 2016 Bin 111a Shiraz is a blend of Clare Valley and Barossa Valley fruit previously ticketed for Grange, aged 18 months in new French hogsheads. It would be easy to dismiss it as another cynical marketing ploy, but it's yet another unique expression of Shiraz and the quality lives up to the lofty price tag. For the one-percenters lucky enough to snare a bottle or two, it'll provide immense pleasure for decades to come." (wa). "Much anticipated vintage for Grange and it is a powerhouse of concentration and complexity. Aromas of orange and lemon peel to start, then graphite, blackberries, plum paste, black cherries, boundless sweet oak spice, fresh cedar, tar, mahogany, roasted coffee and chocolate - the list goes on. Such complexity. Classic Grange, offering such deep, dark intensity. The palate has immense richness and depth with a super succulent and very long, fleshy, deeply weighted array of dense, velvet-wrapped tannins that run so long. The fruit flavors sit in the blackberry, blood-plum and blueberry zone with succulent, long and assertive structure, carrying through in an utterly seamless mode. The finish is tightly wrenched, in spectacularly powerful style, locking this wine in for a very long haul. Best from 2030." (js). "The flagship 2015 Grange is a monster of wine and one of those rare wines that blends power and elegance perfectly. Revealing a saturated purple color, it's seemingly more forward and seductive than past great vintages, which I suspect is due to the incredible purity of fruit as well as the wine's flawless balance than any change in winemaking or stylistic shifts. I also think the acidity is healthy, and the 2015 tips the scales at 14.5% alcohol, which is certainly in the sweet spot, if not tame, for beautifully ripe Syrah these days. A blend of 98% Shiraz and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon that spent 20 months in new American oak hogsheads, it offers an extraordinary perfume of sweet crème de cassis, lead pencil shavings, camphor, Asian spices, licorice, and wildflowers. This is followed by a full-bodied, powerful yet incredibly seamless and elegant Shiraz that has no hard edges, a big, dense mid-palate, ripe tannins, and a great finish. Coming close to rivaling the 1986, which has always been a benchmark vintage of Grange for me, the 2015 offers a more polished, elegant, approachable style. Vintage comparisons aside, this is a legendary example of Grange in the making. The savvy wine lovers out there will give this 7-8 years of bottle age (I'll probably be out of bottles by then) and enjoy over the following 2-3 decades." (jd). "Cellar Selection, This vintage of the famed wine is perhaps its most approachable to date. The nose is open and expressive, with waves of aromas ranging from licorice, currant and plum to baking spice, furniture polish, freshly picked olive, mushroom and vanilla. The mouthfeel is satiny in texture, awash with fruit and spices of all shapes and sizes, all wound by fine tannins. Drink through 2040. -Christina Pickard" (we) |
| Price: | $ 599.95 |
| Price in original currency: | None |
Previously available from Los Angeles Wine Company
| Address: |
4935 McConnell Ave. Suite #8 Los Angeles, CA 90066-6756 United States |
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| Telephone (toll-free): | 800-854-8466 |
| Telephone (regular): | 310-306-9463 |
| Fax: | 310-306-0093 |
First added to 1000 Corks on November 15, 2019.
This product was inactivated November 15, 2023.
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