2021 Grange La Chapelle Syrah - Penfolds x Chapelle

“The remarkable offspring of two legendary parent wines from opposite sides of the world. Caroline Frey and Peter Gago on the Hill of Hermitage with their new wine”
– World of Fine Wine

99 points, Falstaff
Dark fruit in perfect ripeness, blackberries, some elderberries, plus an engaging freshness, cooling herbs, some graphite, subtle chocolate in the background, austerity providing complexity, but also almost floral, sweetish nuances.

Also fresh and enormously elegant on the palate with very fine, superb tannins, again dark but fresh fruit and spices on the finish. Finishes juicy with notes of dark berries. Certain ageing potential.

99 points Tyson Stelzer
Unexpected in every way, this is a wine as unique and singular as its inimitable and unprecedented recipe. The result of blending such vastly disparate components is astonishing in its harmonious synergy. It unites magnificent depth of blackberry, blueberry and satsuma plum fruits, dark spice and black pepper, seamlessly marrying the fruit magnificence of Grange with the fine-boned, mineral structure of La Chapelle. The summer of 2021 was afflicted with frequent heavy rains in the northern Rhône, swelling the berries and necessitating removal of some of the clear juice from the saignées to increase the skin-to-juice ratio. The season was one of the finest in South Australia in decades, cool by modern standards, but in fact in line with long-term averages – a classic in the truest sense.

These restrained seasons collide to set a brightness and energy of crunchy acidity that propels its super-fine, velvety tannins with spectacular definition. The elegance and structural finesse of La Chapelle is the perfect partner to the opulence of Grange, not counteracting, contradicting, nor even offsetting, but rather synergising to accent, embrace and propel each other’s strengths. This is astounding on the highest order. The full ripeness, new American oak and sheer, voluminous presence of Grange in no way dominates the more delicate and savoury La Chapelle! Dark chocolate oak never overwhelms, but rather confidently pushes fruit and structure upwards and outwards. It holds every splendid detail in suspended animation for minutes.

I love its plush Grange fruit core, its intriguing La Chapelle pepper/spice, its impossibly seamless harmony and most of all its velvet-fine and elegant tannin profile of fine granite, tapped by deep roots of old vines at the apex of Hermitage. Penfolds Grange La Chapelle Shiraz Syrah stands as a towering monument to the courageous tenacity of Gago and Frey. Bravo!