2018 Penfolds Grange Shiraz

Ken Gargett Wine of the Year 2022
James Suckling Top 100 Value Wines of the World 2022
James Suckling Top 100 Wines of Australia 2022

Penfolds Bin 95 Grange Shiraz is Australia's most famous wine with a reputation for superb fruit complexity and flavour richness. It is the most powerful expression of Penfolds multi-vineyard, multi-district blending philosophy and is officially listed as a Heritage Icon of South Australia. One of the world's great wines.

100 points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal Penfolds Collection 2022 
Deep colour. Beautfiul and classic, with intense blackberry, blackcurrant dark chocolate espresso aromas and wax polish, roasted chestnut, malt notes. Superbly concenrated wine with deep-set inky blackberry, blackcurrant, dark plum, dark chocolate mocha flavours, fine chocolaty/velvety tannins, underlying espresso, malt, oak notes and hints of aniseed. Finishes chocolaty firm with superbly integrated acidity and mineral length. A glorious year for Grange. This will last 50 years at least. Wonderful. One of the greatest vintages of all time, highlighting a superb growing season, marvellous vineyard management, the fidelity of the Penfolds house style, and generations of imagination and effort. 97% Shriaz, 3% Cabernet Sauvignon. Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and Clare Valley. 18 months maturation in 100% new American oak hogsheads. Drink 2030-2060+.

100 points, Nick Stock, JamesSuckling.com – Top 100 Value Wines of the World 2022 and Top 100 Wines of Australia 2022
A robust Grange from a lauded vintage, this wields sheer power with such compelling prowess. Uncompromising Grange. There are rich blackberries and plums on offer, together with brazen oak and abundant notes of blackcurrants, black cherries, charcoal, cola and hard brown spices. So fleshy and intense. Dark-chocolate and cocoa-powder aromas and flavors here, too. The tannins are polished and long, extruding deep into the finish and holding endlessly. Dark chocolate, black cherry, dark plum and more. Impressive. Brazen. One of the great Granges that will drink magnificently for decades to come.

100 points, Tony Love, Wine Pilot
A much-awaited vintage that fulfils expectations and then some. It has all the elements that you come to expect but still you have to sit back and marvel that so much can be going on inside one wine. Firstly, it simply ain't Grange unless it is wearing its traditional American oak coat, and this iteration isn't going to shy away from that. But perhaps it is the generosity across the board of South Australia's 2018 vintage that gathers in 18 months of barrel maturation, puts shape to its broad-shouldered dark fruits, turns oak notes into chocolate and sarsaparilla characters on one side of the brain and beef and mushroom braise in the other. All in all, it is a fabulous balance of inputs: big fruit, classically prominent oak, all its structural tannins and acidity fitting cleverly into one exceptionally complex and engaging being. Palate length is indefinite, perhaps suggesting similar cellaring potential well into the second half of the 21st century. Magnificent.

100 points, Ken Gargett, The World of Fine Wine 
There was one wine, however, that I was even keener to taste again: the 2018 Grange. I’d given it 100 points the first time I tasted it and was blown away. That said, when one goes big, so to speak, for such a young wine, there are always nagging doubts. Did it really deserve such an exulted score? I was far from the only one to rate it so highly, but I was still keen to see whether or not I had gotten a bit too excited on the day.

Absolutely not. This is a truly spectacular wine, fully deserving of its score. Indeed, I think it is the most thrilling young Grange (Aussie red wine, if you like) that I have ever tasted, and that in time it will sit with the very best: 1952, 1953, 1962, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, and 2012. No doubt others will have their own view on the greatest Granges, but all these must rank with the finest (in fairness, I should state that I have included the 1952 on reputation as I have not had the pleasure).

So my 'wine of the year' came down to the choice from a pair from Penfolds: the 1962 Bin 60A and the 2018 Grange. I’m opting for the latter, simply because it will still be available (and a fraction of the price, though hardly everyday drinking at AUD$1,000).

100 points, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent
Composed of 97% Shiraz with a 3% splash of Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2018 Grange was sourced from the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and Clare Valley. It was aged for 18 months in 100% new American oak hogsheads (slightly larger than the classic Bordeaux barriques). It sports an opaque purple-black color, while the nose begins as an impenetrable wall of blueberry pie and blackberry preserves. Patience and vigorous swirling eventually unlock an underlying perfume of Indian spices, cedar chest, sassafras, fragrant soil, and cracked black peppercorns, with slowly emerging wafts of licorice, charcuterie, and rose oil. The assertive, full-bodied palate is taut and muscular, featuring very firm, super tight-knit tannins and seamless acidity, finishing long, long, long. Undoubtedly one of the great modern era Granges, this 2018 is like a hypothetical blend of the concentrated, powerful 2013, albeit with the latent expressiveness of the fabulously opulent, flamboyant 2008. Try to keep your hands off this multifaceted powerhouse for 10-15 years and then drink it over the next 50 years+ or bequeath it to your favored next of kin.