Penfolds Grange 2000

Grange is both Penfolds and arguably Australia's most famous wine and is officially listed as a Heritage Icon of South Australia. Grange boasts an unbroken line of vintages from the experimental 1951 and clearly demonstrates the synergy between Shiraz and the soils and climate of South Australia.

Penfolds Grange displays fully ripe, intensely-flavoured and textured shiraz grapes in combination with new American oak. The result is a unique Australian style that is now recognized as one of the most consistent of the world's great wines. The Grange style is the original and most powerful expression of Penfolds multi-vineyard, multi-district blending philosophy.

The 2000 Penfolds Grange is an excellent example of the Grange style transcending a most challenging South Australian 2000 vintage.

Regional Source: Entirely Barossa Valley, (40% Kalimna).

Vintage Conditions: As in most south-eastern districts, some rain fell between Christmas and New Year, followed by very dry and very hot conditions until March. Crops were down by 20-40% producing parcels of 'Grange' quality in the Barossa.

Grape Variety: Shiraz (Syrah)

Maturation: This wine was aged for 18 months in new American oak hogsheads.

96 Points - James Halliday

Good depth to the colour, seamless blackberry fruit and vanilla/cedar oak, abundant power and concentration, sultry blackberry, dark chocolate and spice, and persistent but balanced tannins.

93 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Penfolds’ renowned 2000 Grange is only the fifth vintage to be made from 100% Shiraz (the others being 1951, 1952, 1963, and 1999). It is also, atypically, 100% Barossa fruit. While it is not considered to be one of the great Granges, the 2000 exhibits outstanding potential, and is much more accessible than usual. One of the top wines I tasted from this vintage (which has had to take a back seat to subsequent years), its dense ruby/purple colour is followed by a big, sweet nose of blackberries, cherries, chocolate, and earth. With decent acidity, ripe, silky tannin, superb intensity, wonderful equilibrium, and a more open-knit, softer, accessible style than usual, it can be drunk now or cellared for 15-16 years. While this is no wimpy wine, it is an ideal example for readers who are unwilling to invest the patience required for the big, blockbuster Granges.

93 Points - Wine & Spirits

Penfolds pulled off a meaty vintage of Grange in 2000: 100 percent Shiraz from Barossa Valley. The year was marked by an extremely hot, dry spell from January until March, and the resulting wine is so dense with an extract that the stony tannin doesn't mitigate the thickness until tasted again a day later. By then, the air has brought up the exotic spice of the tannin and given a mineral lift to the dark, resinous fruit. This will need years to sort itself out, but it looks to be a sleek vintage of Grange when it does, probably by 2010 or '12.