Penfolds Grange 2006

Professional Ratings

• 98 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  Made from fruit coming predominantly from the Barossa Valley this year (97%) and containing 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2006 Grange has been added to my list of favorite recent vintages. Deep garnet-purple colored, it’s still a little youthfully mute, offering notes of warm cherries, black currants, anise, coffee and toast with underlying hints of soy, yeast extract, black olives and Indian spices. Tight-knit and solidly structured on the medium to full bodied palate, the concentrated fruit is densely coiled around the firm grainy tannins and very crisp acidity at this stage, but promises something very special in the years to come. It finishes very long, complex and layered with the cedar poking though the fruit purity. Patience is required for this vintage; it should begin opening out around 2016 and drink to 2030+.
  98+
• 96 Wine & Spirits
  As chief winemaker, Peter Gago has made his mark on several of the newer Penfolds wines, including RWT and Yattarna. The style of Grange, with one of the longest track records of any South Australian red, is slower to evolve—but it does change, and the style of this 2006 makes it the clearest Gago Grange yet. Part of that is the vintage; part of that is what Gago did with the vintage. This wine doesn’t shout; it purrs. Nor does it sit still. It rolls around over raspberry bliss, under a supple caress of tannins, through an earthy chocolate and mushroom savor. The dynamic structure involves all the elements in a tangle of youthful energy, the old-vine fruit achieving something close to perfection in its form. New oak dominates at this early stage of its evolution, but this is set to become a great Grange.
• 94 Wine Enthusiast
  Not quite the massive monster that is the 2004 Grange, the 2006 is still no shrinking violet. It's full bodied, muscular and extracted, and while the flavors veer towards expresso and dark chocolate, there's also a ribbon of raspberry fruit running through the wine from start to long, dusty finish. Drink 2015-2025, and probably beyond.