6 vintages of Grange from the new Millenium
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Jag tog tillfället i akt att beställa hem en flight med sex olika årgångar av Penfolds Grange i samband med ett 67 Pall Mall webinar med Peter Gago, Chief winemaker på Penfolds. Årgångarna var
02, 04, 06, 08, 10 och 12 - dvs alla superunga. Hade varit kul om de hade haft med några äldre årgångar, men han var lite rädd att det inte skulle funka att skeppa runt äldre årgångar i småflaskor. “Great Grange can be drunk very early”, tyckte han. Jo, visst kan man det … men tycker väl egentligen inte det finns någon som helst anledning att dricka dem före typ 25 års ålder. “Rule of thumb for Granges ageing capacity - even the lesser vintages will give you three decades.”
Provade halvblint och man ser en skillnad på färgen på vinerna om man ockulärbesiktigar dem. Kunde plocka ut 02an och 04an på att de blivit aningens teglade i kanten. Båda har dock fortfarande en djupt röd färg i coren. De yngre har fortfarande en mer lila/rosaaktig kant och är djupt, djupt röda/blåröda.
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Visst kan man känna olikheter, men sammanfattningsvis så kan man väl säga att det är rätt svårt att känna några större skillnader på de yngsta vinerna. “It is very hard to spot the vintages of Grange blind.“ De känns tidlösa på något vis. Och det är väl det som är meningen: “This thing we call Grange, all we are trying to do is put together a blend that represent the BEST Shiraz we can make in a given year to the stylistic template, the house style, of what we call Grange. We don’t care where it comes from as long as it is the best we can get to fit the house style of Grange. So it is almost like a champagne house style model. How do we get that house style when we have so much to play with? We taste completely blind, we don’t know vineyard, volume or variety. This technique has been used for over 60 years. It keeps emotional and financial considerations out. Financially we would of course prefer that all fruit came from our own vineyards, but that rarely happens. We have a great number of growers going back generations. It might be 40-100 samples so we don’t know which fruit is going in the blend before hand.” Det här är ju precis tvärtemot Chapoutier, som säger: “I want to take pictures of the terroir! I don’t try to make the best wine possible, but the best picture of the terroir.”
I början är vinerna rätt knutna men efter 8 timmar i glaset (och en vecka i den lilla glasflaskan) öppnar de upp sig mer och mer.
Alla vinerna passar mer eller mindre in i samma beskrivning. De har en stor intensiv, tät, djup och komplex doft av mörka bär (välj själv svarta vinbär/mörka plommon/björnbär, mörka körsbär), mycket viol, lakrits, euchalyptus, kryddor, tjära, rostade toner, kaffe, mocha, choklad. Känner inte så mycket av charktonerna men de kanske kommer med ålder (fick lite charktoner i 02an).
Smaken är oerhört koncentrerad, tät och komplex, lager på lager känsla, kraft, mycket tanniner, bra syra, hög alkohol på pappret men den balanseras upp av allt annat som finns. Full bodied och de känns nästan tuggbara. Det jag kan känna är att finishen inte riktigt är så lång o komplex som midpalaten lovar. Men vad vet jag?
Det äldsta vinet i denna flight var alltså 18 år och det hade precis börjat få en aningens teglad kant. Primärfrukten är fortfarande dominerande men det har börjat få lite tertiära toner i form av tobak, kött, rök, soja, läder och mer avrundade tanniner. Men det känns fortfarande enormt ungt med massor med primäraromer och struktur kvar att runda av. Sjukt att det är ett 18 år gammalt vin. 04an var även den kanske lite mer avrundad i strukturen.
Jag hittade noter av järn, rost, torkat blod i två av vinerna (04, 10) och det visade sig vara de två årgångar som hade mest Cabernet i sig (4%). Vet inte om det bara är en slump eller om det är Cabernetdruvan som ger detta. Jag brukar hitta detta även i äldre Bordeauxer.
Peter Gagos favorit i flighten var för dagen 2004. Han brukar gilla 2010 mest men den visade sig tydligen inte från sin allra bästa sida idag. Jag gillade nog 2002an bäst, just för att det hände lite mer med de tertiära tonerna (även om det inte var så himla mycket)
Lite julaftonskänsla att få möjlighet att testa dessa bredvid varandra. Fantastiska viner med en enorm komplexitet och historia!
Här kommer lite info jag transkriberade ner från webinariet om någon är intresserad (är rätt bra på att lyssna o skriva samtidigt
):
History Grange
The first vintage was an experimental Grange 1951, created by Max Schubert. It is only in the recent years it has been included in the complete collection. 1952 was officially the first vintage, but the 51 crept in over time in the collection.
What inspired Max Schuber to make Grange? Pre the 1950ies Penfolds made 80-90% fortified and only 10-20% dry wine (that has completely reversed over time). In 1950 Max Schubert made a trip to Spain/Jerez to look at fortified production and on the way back from that trip he went back through France and Bordeaux. There he looked at wines being stored in smaller oak and thought well if they can we can. In Australia at that time it was not that much Cabernet around, but quite a lot of Shiraz (Hermitage as we called it then). And he experimented with a Grange Hermitage/Shiraz.
It was completely the alien to the wines at the time. Most were aged in very large Australian foudres. This was a wine in 100% new oak. It was quite misunderstood and the company actually prohibited it after a few vintages - the hidden Granges. Max was forbidden to produce Grange but he continued making the wine 57, 58, 59. He could hide the barrels and he could hide the bottles, but he couldn’t hide invoices for new oak. So in 57 he used one year old oak from 56. In 58 two year old oak and in 59 three year old oak. So those three vintages are the only exceptions to not being 100% new oak for Grange.
1953 there was a regular Grange but also a Cabernet Grange (100% Block 42, the ancient Cabernet vineyard in Kalimna). We never continued calling it a Cabernet Grange because of the confusion.
Block 42 vineyard in Kalimna - The old Cabernet vineyard was planted in 1888. It is released as a single vineyard wine once in a blue moon and not too often. It went into 1953 Grange Cabernet, 1963 Bin 64, 1996 Block 42 , 2004 Block 42. The 4% Cabernet Sauvignon in Grange 2004 comes from this famous block 42 vineyard.
What does Cabernet brings to the blend? - We are not selecting shiraz or cabernet in the process - we are selecting Grange material. Muscular, full of all of the plummy character, soy, the licorice, the richness, the blackness. You don’t pick cabernet, rather what the cabernet will bring later. Structurally and in a flavour sense the cabernet does bounce back in the blend. But in the selection it is selected because it is Grange like, not because it is cabernet like.
The Blend
The sourcing changes from year to year, but in every vintage it will be predominantely fruit from the Barossa Valley. That has not always been the case. Some of the vintages contain McGill estate Shiraz but not all of them. Some have a bit of Mc Laren Vale fruit, some Clare Valley, some Adelaide Hills, some Coonowarra. Why that huge variation of sourcing?
That is because this thing we call Grange, all we are trying to do is put together a blend that represent the BEST Shiraz we can make in a given year to the stylistic template, the house style of what we call Grange. We don’t care what it comes from as long as it is the best we can get to fit the house style of Grange. So it is almost like a champagne house style model. How do we get that house style when we have so much to play with? We taste completely blind, we don’t know vineyard, volume or variety. This technique has been used for over 60 years. It keeps emotional and financial considerations out. Financially we would of course prefer that all fruit came from our own vineyards, but that rarely happens. We have a great number of growers going back generations. It might be 40-100 samples so we don’t know which fruit is going in the blend before hand.
Volume of Grange varies year to year because of that selection technique. Also % of Cabernet varies. 1993 it was 14% Cabernet, the highest ever.
There is nothing that says that Grange could not be from a single vineyard in a great vintage, if it were so majestically complete to the style. But what we found is by adding all those different flavours, colours and characters we end up with something much grander for this style of wine.
Grange matures as a blend in barrel, not in components in separate barrels.
In the classification: If it doesn’t go into Grange, where does it go? It goes into Baby Grange = Bin 389 or sometimes if it is very early into ferment it would go into RWT (if it is fruit from Barossa). If it is Marananga fruit, It could go into bin 150. Bin 150 Marananga is fermented both in American and French oak. So the smart person buys a lot more Bin 389 in a great year for Grange.
St Henri goes into the older, larger foudres. So it doesn’t get the barrel fermentation that Grange gets in 100% new oak. Grange is picked at a Grade 1 Shiraz level = the best of the best of the best. Sometimes St Henri gets a little bit of that, but its average sourcing component would be Grade 2 Shiraz level. The quality is a little bit behind that of Grange. On paper Grange should be better cos it gets better quality fruit, but in a great year the difference is almost non existent. 1971, 1990, 2010, 2016 are Peter Gagos four St Henri favourites across the last half century.
RWT Barossa Shiraz matured in French oak.
Bin 169 Cabernet all French oak.
Bin 407 half French oak, half American oak.
Mc Gill Estate Shiraz 2/3 French and 1/3 American
But Grange and 707 are 100% American oak.
Organic/biodynamic - we used to have vineyards in Clare valley certified as biodynamic but we are not so much into that certification anymore. Some of our growers are biodynamic. But we do not spray that much anyway, its South Australia and the climate is clean and green anyway. That is why we have these old vines. But we are not religious about not spraying. We will spray if we have to. A lot of our processes are truly organic but not without exception. It is a bit like irrigation, if the vines are gonna die we do irrigate.