THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
1955 PENFOLDS BIN 95 GRANGE HERMITAGE South Australia
The 1955 Grange, with only nine months of oak maturation, was the most decorated of all Grange vintages. It was listed by the American wine consumer advocate Wine Spectator as one of the greatest wines of the 20th century. Leading wine judge Len Evans, in his last published book, How to Taste Wine, wrote: ‘Great Granges were often quite volatile and the 1955 caused a show incident. I was on a panel of three, two of whom, including me, gave the wine a gold [medal]. We recognized the acetic acid but also gloried in the flavour, depth, and balance of the wine. The other judge gave it 13, a very low score, and would not budge. The chairman, the late great George Fairbrother, a man of infinite patience and great charm, took one sniff of it and said to the dissenter, “Well, if you won’t budge, I’m afraid I’ll have to overrule you and give it a Chairman’s gold”. In the 25 to 30 shows I judged under his guidance, he only did this with one other wine, the famous Stonyfell 1945 Vintage Port.’ The 1955 Penfolds Grange Hermitage was a favourite of Max Schubert’s, partly because it won a gold medal in the open claret class at the 1962 Sydney Royal Wine Show. It was around this time that Grange came out of the cold. It was also released as Bin 13, 14, 53, 54, and 148A. The 1955 Grange won 51 gold medals and 12 trophies before it was retired from the show circuit.
Penfolds Bin 95 Grange Hermitage, 1955.
On the 5th of November 1956, Orlando’s Barossa Pearl came off the bottling line and ushered in a new era of sparkling wine drinking. Previously, the German oenologist Günter Prass had observed the popularity of Perlé wines in Europe. Together with Colin Gramp, the two introduced a new category into the Australian wine market. These ‘pearl’ (corrupted from the French) wines were made using the tank transfer method – much like prosecco today – but Australia led this technology during this time by investing in pressure tanks, centrifuges, and hygienic air-filtered, sterile bottling rooms. According to Ian Hickinbotham, there was a general belief that Pearl wines were carbonated white wines, but this
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