1980 Grange

Sourced from the Barossa Valley (including Kalimna Vineyard), Clare Valley, Magill Estate, McLaren Vale and Coonawarra. Shiraz (96%), Cabernet Sauvignon (4%).

Generally good growing season with fine and warm conditions followed by a cool vintage. Another unusual vintage in that the grapes ripened late, but were very full.

Eighteen months in new American oak hogsheads.

Don Ditter, Penfolds chief winemaker

96/100

Potentially the greatest Grange after the 1976, this opaque purple-colored wine reveals little evolution in its color.

The huge nose of peppery blackcurrants, roasted herbs, tar, sweet oak, and lavish quantities of fruit is followed by a full-bodied, expansive, thick, chewy wine with that extraordinary flavor density exhibited by great vintages of Grange.

The finish lasts for 40+ seconds, revealing Olympic-sized quantities of glycerin and fruit, as well as considerable ripe, sweet tannin.

The low acidity and extraordinary ripeness and voluptuousness make this youthful wine deceptively easy to drink. However, it requires another 3-4 years of cellaring to develop more complexity.

Robert M. Parker Jr., Wine Advocate #100, August 1995

93/100

Harvey Steiman, Wine Spectator, 31 January 1997

90/100

Jeremy Oliver, www.jeremyoliver.com