Penfolds - Grange - 2006

This year's release is made from grapes grown mostly in the Barossa Valley (shiraz), though there is a small amount of shiraz from Magill Estate in Adelaide included in the final wine, and two percent cabernet sauvignon from Coonawarra. As always, it's matured in 100 percent new American oak. This year's Grange is a wine with a huge, clean, cutting right hook of flavour as you swallow. It's not a massive release but the ropes of flavour-drenched tannin on the finish pull it on and on. This precision engineering through the finish marks its intense quality. It tastes of blackberry and aniseed, nutmeg and smoky vanilla. It's quite delicious, and yet there's no question that it's powerfully wrought. It's not a particularly heralded vintage, in general terms, but the way this release presents in the glass is, to me, what Grange is all about. Impeccable winemaking, pure fruit, clasps of uncompromising tannin, smokinÆ barrels, and thrust. It will live for a very long time, because it's so well designed, and because it does its thing so well. 97 Points/Drink 2020-2045 - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front Deep crimson; its bouquet has a strikingly complex array of black characters that run all the way from the first whiff to the finish and aftertaste: licorice, tar, bitter chocolate, blackberry, prune and plum. The tannins are prominent, and play their part with each successive sip of the steadily building impact on the very long palate, but they are in balance with the fruit and oak of an extremely powerful Grange. 98 Points/Drink by 2050 - James Halliday, Wine Companion Made from fruit coming predominantly from the Barossa Valley this year (97%) and containing 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2006 Grange has been added to my list of favorite recent vintages. Deep garnet-purple colored, it’s still a little youthfully mute, offering notes of warm cherries, black currants, anise, coffee and toast with underlying hints of soy, yeast extract, black olives and Indian spices. Tight-knit and solidly structured on the medium to full bodied palate, the concentrated fruit is densely coiled around the firm grainy tannins and very crisp acidity at this stage, but promises something very special in the years to come. It finishes very long, complex and layered with the cedar poking though the fruit purity. Patience is required for this vintage; it should begin opening out around 2016 and drink to 2030+. 98+ Points - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate