PENFOLDS GRANGE
Grange – a storied history Max Schubert’s quest to make a great and long lasting South Australian wine is one of the key foundations of the Australian wine industry. The story of Penfolds Grange captures the essence of post war ambitions, the cause of Australian fine wine and extraordinary persistency of vision. Against insurmountable odds, Max Schubert began a tradition that counterpoints the great First Growth wines of Bordeaux and beyond. Penfolds Grange is beloved by people from all walks of life, because it symbolises what is possible in Australia through imagination, hard work and collaboration. Max Schubert, Penfolds’ chief winemaker, was sent to France and Spain in 1950 to investigate sherry making practices and port production. Fortified wines still dominated the fine wine scene in Australia. On a side trip to Bordeaux, however, he visited many great vineyard estates, including the First Growths Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Latour. He was also given the rare opportunity to taste and evaluate Bordeaux wines that were 40 to 50 years old. Inspired and impressed by these cellaring style wines, he dreamed of making ‘something different and lasting’ of his own. On his long five-day return flight to Adelaide via the Middle East, India, Singapore, and Indonesia, he made plans to make a great Australian red wine that would cellar for at least 20 years. On his return to Adelaide, Max Schubert began looking for appropriate raw material. He sourced shiraz grapes from the Grange Vineyard at Magill, and from the privately owned Honeypot Vineyard, planted in 1920 by Samuel Wynn, the founder of Wynn’s Coonawarra Estate, just south of Adelaide at Morphett Vale. He said, ‘I had already observed that both vineyards produced wines of distinctive varietal flavour and character with a great depth of colour and body weight, and felt that by producing them together, the outstanding characteristics of both vineyards would result in an improved all-round wine eminently suitable for my purpose.’ Combining traditional Australian techniques,
Penfolds Grange
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