Penfolds Barossa Valley Penfolds Grange 1989

You might expect a vintage of this age to look more evolved than this, particularly one that is not recognised as a great Grange vintage, and yet it is vibrant and ready for action. 1989 was a very hot year, fully ripe, and it retains an edge of rubber and smoke reduction on the opening notes, needs a good carafe to really open up (which is different from having to carafe for sediment). Once it does, you get straight to cigar box, cinders, soot, blueberries, blackcurrant, raspberry puree, still stunning, with the spice of a hot year. Changed from Grange Hermitage in this year (in the following 1990 vintage, the cork says Grange Hermitage, while the label just says Grange). Peter Gago arrived in this vintage, at a time when the team was still working in a traditional manner, with a continous press used for extraction – a rougher method than today, and yet this is still firing on all cylinders, and is just a fabulous wine.