1981 Grange

Sourced from the Barossa Valley (including Kalimna Vineyard), Magill Estate (Adelaide), Modbury Vineyard (Adelaide), Clare Valley and Coonawarra.

A warm to hot, drought-affected summer followed by a normal vintage. Shiraz (89%), Cabernet Sauvignon (11%).

Matured in new American oak hogsheads for 18 months.

Don Ditter, Penfolds chief winemaker

96/100

My tastings of the 1981 Grange have always revealed an exceptional wine, although there has been some variation in quality, with scores ranging from the low to the mid-nineties.

It has always exhibited phenomenal quantities of ripe fruit, an opulent, sweet palate, a dark purple color, and gobs of glycerin and alcohol in the lusty finish. At some tastings it appeared to be cut from the same cloth as the glorious 1971 and 1976.

At other times it revealed a rustic side. In this tasting, it ranked as one of the great wines of the eighties, rivaling the 1982 and being eclipsed only by the nearly perfect 1986.

The powerful 1981 remains youthful and unevolved, and in need of another 3-5 years of cellaring. (I know I recommended the same thing five years ago, but the wine has not budged in evolution.)

It should keep for another 15+ years.

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

89/100

Harvey Steiman, Wine Spectator, 31 January 1997

88/100

Jeremy Oliver, www.jeremyoliver.com