Grange, Penfolds 2004

It's always fun tasting the 2004 Penfolds Grange. This cuvée typically begins life as a massive, nearly excessively concentrated wine, but then calms down and loses its baby fat. The nearly ten-year-old 2004 is still a young adolescent exhibiting lots of blackberry, cassis, camphor, charcoal ember, beef blood and roasted meat-like characteristics.

The 2004 vintage was outstanding in Barossa, McLaren Vale, and Magill, the regions where the grapes were sourced for the marvelous 2004 Grange. It contains 4% Cabernet Sauvignon and was aged for 16 months in 100% new American oak hogsheads. A glass-coating opaque purple color, it displays a superb nose of wood smoke, Asian spices, incense, game, blueberry, and blackberry liqueur. Medium to full-bodied, satin textured, with deeply layered, succulent blackberry, plum, and chocolate flavors, it has the structure and complexity to merit extended cellaring of a decade and more. The winery estimates a drinking curve of 2016 to 2050; I-d be a bit more conservative on the long end of the range. It will ultimately be seen as one of the great vintages of Grange.

Smooth and seductive, this delivers a full-throated chorus of currant,plum, blackberry and spice flavors, hinting at coffee and cardamomas the finish floats and sails easily over a bed of polished, refined tannins. A touch of black olive balances nicely against it all. Beautifully structured, expressive and very long. Best from 2012 through 2025.

Penfolds, Grange 2004 South Australia 19 Drink 2012-30 96% Shiraz, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon. It is tempting to drink this intense yet sumptuous wine now, as many Americans would, yet its glory is its ability to age for, as Penfolds' greatest Granges do, up to 50 years. It has a deep crimson rim and shows unfolding aromas of camphor, liquorice, rhubarb, black cherry, mulberry and black pepper. The palate is tight in its graphite and black pepper top notes, then reveals mocha and leafy green notes to go with juicy mulberry and black cherry. Full, supple tannins, with great structure. Bright yet tight. Linda Murphy, jancisrobinson.com