Penfolds Grange 1998
1998 is one of the all time great vintages of Grange.
Provenance is crucial when buying wines of this price and age. I purchased this wine at release and have had it stored in my own temperature controlled cellar since that time. The bottle is in immaculate condition. I have only recently decided to offer it for sale.
“This is going to be a legendary Grange. The wine shows an extraordinarily intense nose of creme de cassis intermixed with blueberries and almost floral notes. As the wine sits in the glass, some meat, plum, and cola notes emerge. In the mouth, it is absolute perfection, seamless, with extraordinarily sweet tannin, well-integrated acidity, sensational extract, and just layer upon layer of blackberry and cassis fruits that stain the palate and fill the mouth. Its harmony, freshness, and remarkable length (nearly a minute) suggest an all-time classic and another legend.”
99 points, Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate (2002).
“Untold wealth is required to acquire this wine since Robert Parker gave it '99/99+' No one could fail to admire this wine, which in this particular vintage contains about three per cent of the Cabernet Sauvignon Penfolds found most remarkable from the 1998 vintage. It's extraordinarily concentrated in every way (although it failed to line the glass with purple as young vintage port does – a phenomenon I remember from my first acquaintance with young Grange in the mid-1980s). The colour is as brash as squashed elderberries. The nose is extraordinarily deep, dragging you in to its intensity, and with a strong lifted/volatile element (not to the point of a wine fault but certainly noticeable). Then on the palate there's a round sweetness that makes it almost unctuous. The level of acidity (7.2 in tartaric apparently; pH 3.5) is quite remarkable – verging on painful – but the considerable tannin charge of this wine is almost abscured by the sheer mass of all that concentrated ripe fruit. I found the finish a little bit hot though the wine is 'only' 14.5 per cent alcohol, I'm told. So, yes, like most vintages of Grange, I admire this wine – indeed I admire this particular vintage more than most. But I have to say I would never buy a bottle. Its price relative to the purity of pleasure it gives this particular palate just doesn't make sense. I relish every chance I get to taste Grange but find myself exhausted rather than delighted by drinking it.”
18 points, JancisRobinson.com (September 2003).
| SKU | 1PENFGRG98 |
| Brand | Penfolds |
| Shipping Weight | 1.5000kg |
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