Penfolds Grange Vertical Collection

“Australia’s most famous fine wine” is how Jancis Robinson describes Penfolds Grange in her world-renowned wine resource, The Oxford Companion to Wine. First produced in secrecy in a shed in the Barossa Valley, Grange has become a global icon, and the benchmark for the quality Australian winemaking can achieve. Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the first release of this legendary wine in 1952, we are thrilled to offer a thirteen vintage vertical of the most important contemporary releases* of Penfolds Grange. To understand Grange and how it attained its global status, you first need to understand its parent company Penfolds. Founded in 1844 as a fortified wine and brandy producer, the South Australia-based company was a household name in Australia by the 1920s and was exporting its wines throughout the British Empire. When the 1950s came around, they sent one of their chief winemaker Max Schubert to Europe to tour and learn from winemakers in various regions. He came back with a dream of making a Bordeaux-style red that could age and improve over time; thus, Grange was born. The style of wine was initially rejected in 1952 when the 1951 vintage was tasted, but Schubert kept making the wine in secret until it was widely accepted in the mid-1950s. Thanks to the global distribution network and marketing machine that Penfolds already had in place, Penfolds Grange quickly became available and sought out around the world. With Grange, Penfolds revolutionized the approach to winemaking in Australia, shifting from an industry focused on the production of cheap fortified wines toward dry table wine production. Due to its relatively short history of producing dry age-worthy wines, Australia is still considered an emerging player in the investment-grade wine space. Grange is still the only blue-chip produced in the region and as such is the top wine traded from Australia on Liv-ex. Grange is such a strong brand that when the Asian Market turned to wine in the late 2000s early 2010s, Grange was one of the most sought-after wines alongside First Growth Bordeaux. A major factor in the appeal of Penfolds Grange is its consistency. This is exemplified by the fact that nine out of the thirteen wines featured in this collection were scored 98 points or better by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, with the 2008 and 2013 scoring 100 points. In fact, Grange is one of the few wines to regularly draw top marks from both Robert Parker and Jancis Robinson, who typically have differing approaches to scoring wines. Iconic brand power, consistently high scores, and favorable acquisition costs were all factors in our decision to create a Penfolds Grange collection. Add on the compounding rarity of an extensive vertical of thirteen vintages of pristine bottles, all still in their original wooden cases, and this collection offers an exceptional opportunity to add both a blue-chip producer and an emerging region to your portfolio. *All vintages, except 2011, which was excluded due to poor vintage conditions **Brand performance across all vintages