April 7, 2024 - Deep opaque garnet.
Aromas of fruit drops, mint, elderberry juice, cardamon and cloves.
Finely grained juicy tannins. Blackberry slightly low acidity and dark chocolate bitterness. Full body.
Palate of blackberry jam, eucalyptus, cranberry juice, licorice and wet tarmac.
A typical, juicy and easy to like Aussie Shiraz with plenty of fruit, elegant acids and lively long finish. Drink within 10 years.
Tasted alongside Penfolds St Henri Shiraz 2004 and the present wine is open, racy and heady compared to the matched wine.
March 28, 2024 - [Double decanted for 4 hours at 1pm.] Gorgeous nose of rich sweet black fruit and spice. Complex and full in the mouth. Long finish. The most complete wine of the evening, but needs more time. Four hours in a decanter wasn't enough.
March 28, 2024 - WCC Syrah from around the world tasting (Clifton Park, NY): Well, this was disappointing to see revealed as '98 Grange - it's a wine that I'd normally be very excited to sit down and drink but this felt a bit blocky and painfully youthful and didn't really distinguish itself from the rest of the flight. The red and black fruit here feels very dense, somewhat monolithic, though there's a high-toned minty and herbal aromatic topnote that adds a sense of freshness. There's also a lot of apparent tannin on the palate, and it still feels like a wine more about potential and promise than immediate pleasure.
February 12, 2024 - DRC, Bizot, Pignan, Soldera and Grange (L'envol, St Regis, HK): Showing some potential but somehow like oak juice, maybe because of inadequate decanting. Cannot open despite 6+ hours of bottle decanting and 1+ hour of decanter.
If I need to try again, I might just put it in decanter for 6+ hours.
February 12, 2024 - Opened at L'Envol in HK. Slow-oxed for 3 hours before we decided to decant it as it needed more air.
Unfortunately, I didn't quite get this wine. Those at the table with more experience with Grange said that this underperformed massively, and that some of its signature 'chocolate milk' notes just didn't come out. A shame about this bottle, as others from the same lot have performed extremely well. Alas, it happens.
February 1, 2024 - Just a splash decant, so maybe it needs serious time in decanter and/or more age….but that said, I expected a helluva lot more (especially since I have a case). It’s dark, brooding, has that deep, sultry Syrah profile but lacking depth, burst of flavor, complexity. It somehow compares more with a Clape Cornas or an aged Tempier, but at same time lacking the profound character and ties to the land I taste (or imagine) when I drink those. Hoping this ages into something a bit different and more attractive.
December 25, 2023 - We were sceptical whether this wine would be worth its high price, but all of us four were deeply impressed. After a decant for four hours: What a majestic wine, full bodied but not massive and extremely elegant. A sensational experience.
December 16, 2023 - Gone
December 10, 2023 - Perfectly fresh, a wonderful wine
December 2, 2023 - A gorgeously ripe and full-bodied Grange with classic wild berry fruit and a fabulous spice-driven finish. Quite rich at this point but should be spectacular in 5+ years. 95+