THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
1952 PENFOLDS BIN 4 GRANGE HERMITAGE South Australia
For years, the 1952 Grange was the first of a ‘dynasty of wines’. Bolstered by pressings from Nuriootpa, this vintage possessed an extra richness and concentration. Combining traditional Australian techniques, new ideas from Bordeaux, and precision winemaking practices developed at Penfolds, the style gradually improved throughout the 1950s. Soon, Grange made Penfolds a household name throughout Australia. The techniques employed in the research and development of Grange and other Penfolds wines gradually filtered through the Australian fine wine community. Many of Australia’s great contemporary wines borrow some of these techniques, especially partial-barrel fermentation. Max Schubert noted that ‘the basic method adopted opened up a whole new concept of quality dry red production, in that fermentation was strictly controlled over a much more lengthy period than hitherto [and] maximum extraction was obtained by daily handling and maceration of juice and grape solids. When this had been achieved, the partially fermented wine was separated from the skins and the fermentation was then completed in the [five untreated] new hogsheads, where the wine remained until the time of bottling some 18 months later. The objective was to produce a big, full-bodied wine containing maximum extraction of all the components in the grape material used.’
Penfolds Bin 4 Grange Hermitage 1952.
This was also released as Bin 4A.
It is hard to realise that in 1952, the first Grange vintage, the use of small oak casks – hogsheads of 65 [sic] gallons – to add to wine flavour was unheard of in this country. – James Halliday, National Times, 1978
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