February 28, 2024 - Beautiful bottle of wine. Drinking well
May 4, 2023 - Hmm my overiding impression is of regret. This is still too young.
Wonderful depth and structure. Pure linear blueberry fruit, huge focus and power, reminds me of Screaming Eagle. Amazing intensity and depth. There is hedgerow and hints of leather here, tertiary beginning g to come through but they are still in the background, amazingly this is still very primary. Long and complex, can drink with great pleasure now but will be way better in 10 or 20 years.
April 27, 2023 - Brought along by a dear friend to help celebrate my 70th birthday :-)
What a wine ! At 37 years of age, it was in remarkable condition. Decanted from modest sediment and aired for about an hour. Colour was deep dark red, with a brick edge - looked about 15 years old !!
The nose was indeed very 'Bordeaux like' in its intensity, showing fine pencil shavings/cedar and concentrated 'blue fruits' character. The palate structure was powerful, yet elegant and svelte. There was little to no pepper and spice evident - just a velvety, long, long and beautifully balanced palate. With food, the tannins were ameliorated and gorgeous, while the last remnants in the glass showed a bit more grip as a wine by itself.
When red wines get to this serious sort of age, varietal identification can become a lot harder, as was the case here, with some in our group thinking it was indeed a Bordeaux. No wonder Max Schubert got his inspiration for Grange from that region. This was simply a ripper wine, and could be kept for another decade, although it might need the Penfolds re-corking program to help it go that long, as this bottle's cork was showing some brittleness, despite the very good fill level.
December 31, 2022 - Decanted for an hour. I had passed on buying a number of Granges from the 80s based upon some reviews of them through the early 2000s, but that was a mistake, at least for the '86. This wine continued to bloom after decanting. Gorgeous black and red fruits that have just the right amount of ripeness, with touches of sweet Oak, menthol, dried herbs. A seamless wine from start to a long 30 second finish. Near silky smooth.
November 30, 2022 - Pop and pour. There was a difference of opinion on this wine between myself and JC. He thought it was corked. It was certainly musty but that blew off after some vigorous swirls of the glass. I find most corked wines rather flat, but this was pretty expressive. But then JC has a PhD in oenology. I would like to think I have enough experience to to figure out if a wine is corked or not; although I do admit my sensitivity is lower than others, and it was my bottle, so biases might have come into play.
In any case, here's my take. Bricking at the edge, but still a deep and opaque core. Mint was the first thing when the cork was popped, and then came the mustiness. That blew off after a couple of swirls. Dark roast coffee and vanilla oak on the nose. Quite surprised by that. I was expecting the wood to be fully integrated by now. Rich, full, and dense mouthfeel. Nice that, at least on the palate, the oak is fully integrated. Roast meat, more coffee. Cocoa powder. Initially quite sweet black berry fruit that gives way to much drier flavours. Still pretty tannic. Cleansing acidity at the back end. Very fine sediment. Tremendous length - the sweet blackcurrant coming back again at the very end. No hurry to drink up. Still a lot of life in this.
October 1, 2022 - 50th Birthday Tasting (Vesterbro): Everything in this wine just screams Bordeaux! Packed with black currant fruit and leaves but also balanced and refined tannins.
The fruit is still fairly compact in its core and has a sweet note to it, but nothing that is ruining the balance.
It is showing a touch of age with mushrooms and wet leaves but the fruit just feels incredibly young and it could perhaps continue to evolve over time.
August 31, 2022 - Clear WOTN in the 81,82,85,86,89 vertikal.
April 29, 2022 - Tasted blind, completely missed this wine as Grange, much more tannic structure than I am used to with Grange, great, dark fruit, cedar, no pepper (which I never get in Grange), big youthful wine with decades to go, the power and tannins are a little atypical for me. Another taster who had bought a case of the 1986, knew it immediately.
January 13, 2022 - drank half in July 2021. Decided to have a glass last night to see how it was doing under coravin. Wouldnt know it wasnt from a full bottle. Deep colour, dusty Penfolds nose, full on developed fruit on the front that runs though the back and down to my toes. Incredible length. Why only 98? Because this wine is still developing and I am confident it will get better.
December 6, 2021 - This one was interesting! Out of the bottle, there was a weird funk/metallic thing happening, which blew off after 30-45 minutes post decanting earlier this morning. I poured it back in the bottle for a few hours and then decanted once again right before dinner. By that point it was quite youthful and actually even a bit tight. Opened up nicely in the glass from there after 6 hours or so, but I think this wine could improve with even more air and clearly has decades ahead of it.