This most anticipated Grange is on the one hand a truly exceptional shiraz, but on the other is a genuine departure from Grange's typical style. It's powerful, layered and bruising to be sure, but there's nothing heavy, clunky or over the top about it. In fact, it's remarkably elegant and balanced - a heady, deep and alluring wine whose deep violet-like aromas and wild, brambly flavours of cassis, blackberries, redcurrants and blueberries simply soak up its finely integrated sweet oak. Saturated with fruit, it's long, velvet-like and sumptuous; underpinned by fine, tight and drying tannins before finishing long, savoury and mineral, with lingering nuances of licorice, cloves, bay leaf, anise and cola. Spectacular. (19.5/98, drink 2034-2044) Jeremy Oliver
Saturated purple-crimson colour; has an amazing depth to the bouquet, oak and black fruits already seamlessly woven; the longer you spend inhaling the aromas, the more you learn about the wine within, in much the same way as a Grand Cru red burgundy. The palate delivers all that the bouquet promises, and then some; it has absolutely perfect proportions to the river of flavours running through blackberry, Satsuma plum, licorice and spice; the tannins are quite active, but totally balanced and ripe. 98 Points Drink 2054 Date Tasted Mar 08 James Halliday Australian Wine Companion
I really believe the 2009 release (2004 vintage) is one of the best yet for Penfolds, and boasts some exceptional wines. The wait for this Grange release has been much anticipated for good reason, and it is arguably the finest vintage since the stellar æ90, æ96 and æ98 vintages. 2004 was an outstanding vintage in Magill, the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale, where the grapes for Penfolds Grange are grown. Peter Gago, Penfolds Chief Winemaker
I'm not sure that ripe, South Australian shiraz gets any better than this - in terms of depth and complexity. It's a credit to Peter Gago and his team. It tastes spectacular. Perfect structure, depth and length. Espresso, crushed ants, blood plums, earth, malt, Asian spice, bay leaf, black tea, pan juices. Tannins cut, crush and mould the wine in the most positive of manners. Massive fragrance. Much like the fabulous 1996 model, though the oak on this one is better integrated than it was with the 1996 as a young wine. Subtle, smoky, barrel ferment characters too. If you are ever going to buy a new-release Grange, this is the one. It's a fifty-year wine. 99 Points, Drink 2017 - 2050 Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
4% Cabernet (1991 had the highest proportion ever of Cabernet with 14%), 85+% Barossa Valley (lots of Kalmina and other growers' grapes), some Magill, plus a tiny bit of McLaren Vale - and, voice drops, a little bit, 4%, of Block 42 (2004 Kalmina Block 42, eg, Bin 60A - planted in the mid 1880s). 'This Grange is the last of our '04 releases.' 16 months in 100% new US oak. Very dark blackish crimson. Lots buried in there - spice and tarmacadam and the merest whiff of treacle toffee but overall amazing life and energy. Lifted and above all fresh! Wonderfully subtle and savoury and with a hint of cough medicine but wonderfully dry and thick and long on the palate. Serious first growth claret build (with which comment I presumably insult all parties...) Australia lurks in the undercurrent rather than imposes itself on the flavour of this wine. No heat at all. Extremely fine tannins. Wonderfully suave and really not like any other wine I can think of. At this stage not noticeably sweet. Gago, like all those previously in charge of making Grange, insists that he has done nothing to change the style - in which case 2004 must be a particularly sophisticated vintage. So persistent! 19.5 Points/Drink 2010-2060 Jancis Robinson, JancisRobinson.com