By: AJ McClellan
Monday was a slow day at Graileys, but sometimes the slower days are the best days. It does not get any better than having a great member drop in with an excellent bottle of wine and some even better stories. The wine was Grange, and the stories, well I will have to keep those to myself…
I have had an interesting relationship with this wine. When I first started to drink Grange I thought it to be over priced and over extracted, but after tasting the wine on numerous occasions I have come to love Grange, putting it on a pedestal as one of the foremost wines to be produced in Australia.
1998 Penfolds Grange – Rated 98+ points by Robert Parker and said to rival the great 1986 bottles of Grange this wine was exceptional! The first thing that I noticed when opening the wine was a note of barley and roasted grain. There was also the telltale nose of eucalyptus and cassis that is always so prevalent on Grange. After some time in the glass the wine started to soften and evolve showing shoebox, leather, clove, and subtle pipe tobacco. The thing that impressed me most on this wine was the earthy tones of scorched earth and slight barnyard that added that extra complexity and made this a elite wine. The tannins are still massive on this wine, and I would feel very comfortable laying it down for another decade before trying it again. A great wine, and a real treat on a slow Monday afternoon…