Penfolds Grange Alcohol Levels: A Vintage-by-Vintage Study (1951 to Present)
One of the cruelties of wine appreciation is that no two vintages of any particular wine can ever be judged, side by side, at exactly the same time of their development. The best we can do is a comparison of one year alongside the release of the following or previous year – with a year of development between them. I was lucky enough, many years ago now, to taste through every release of Penfolds Grange in one sitting, and have since tasted every Penfolds Grange vintage as a new release. Every now and then I see people discuss, or argue, over whether Penfolds Grange now is the same as it always was, or whether its style or presentation-when-young has been tweaked over the years. Because of my tasting history with this wine, I’d love to jump in and pontificate with confidence. I’ve tasted all the commercial-release Penfolds Grange vintages from the 1950s. I’ve tasted all the 1960s releases. And so on. But the problem is that I tasted all those wines when they were already forty or even fifty years of age. Exactly how those wines tasted on the day they were released is, in terms of my own tasting experience, a mystery. Similarly, when I was researching the book The Wine Hunter, I was fortunate to taste some of the life-altering handiwork of Maurice O’Shea and his Mount Pleasant beauties. Again, I tasted these wines when they were sixty or more years old. I desperately wanted to know: what did these wines taste like when they were a new release? I bet current Mount Pleasant winemaker Adrian Sparks would love to know too. As would Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago.
I’m getting old enough now to taste releases of Penfolds Grange, well and truly into their maturity, that I also tasted when they were new releases. There’s some benefit to having been in this caper for 25+ years. Last week I tried eight different vintages of Penfolds Grange, one of which was the Penfolds Grange 1990. I updated a note and some talking points here. I’ve tasted/consumed Penfolds Grange 1990 a number of times now, but I didn’t taste it on release. I did taste Penfolds Grange 1994 on release, but Penfolds Grange 1996 was the one that I had a number of experiences with in the first year of its release. It’s a benchmark or framework release in my mind as a result, as much for its style as for its quality. I tasted Penfolds Grange 1996 again last week too. I reported on it here. Even though I have a long history with this wine I’d still so desperately love the ability to taste this wine both young, and at 30-years-of-age, side-by-side. More’s the pity, oldster. Cruel it is indeed.
I noticed, on re-visiting my notes on the Penfolds Grange 1955, a little quirk. Before I quote this quirk, a reminder that Penfolds Grange 1955 is one of the greatest of all releases, and while not the first commercial release, is the release that started the legend. The quirk: “1955 Penfolds Grange is 12.6% alcohol. This means that the most illustrious release of Grange – the release that put Penfolds Grange on the map – spent only nine months in oak, and is only 12.6% alcohol.”
Nine months in oak. And 12.6% alcohol. For the Grange that started the legend.
Before anyone gets excited and says I told you that Grange has changed over the years! it’s worth pointing out that the Penfolds Grange that we know today, as in the current releases of Grange in the 2020s, are generally matured for 18 or so months in 100% new American oak, and that too, the first commercial release of Penfolds Grange Hermitage, the 1952 vintage, was similarly matured for 18 months in new American oak. So at that base level, Penfolds Grange is made the same now as it was 74 years ago.
But there’s more to wine than its oak and its time in oak. Taste is the best way to assess wine but given the cruelties above, our abilities are limited. Another (basic, simplified, limited) way is to look at alcohols. I wouldn’t for a second suggest that the list below tells us a great deal. But I thought that a compilation of Penfolds Grange alcohol levels from the 1951-vintage experimental release all the way through to now might make for good idle reading.
A few quick points:
These alcohol levels are as accurate as I can find. I will keep double-checking, and adjust when/if I find better evidence.
I’ve noticed some discrepancies between similar sources. I’ve noted some of these discrepancies and will note more if I find any. As a general rule I trust Andrew Caillard, who compiles the Penfolds Rewards of Patience book, and tend to believe his figures. But in any case these ‘discrepancies’ are minor at most.
These are stated or published alcohols. As noted below, stated or published alcohols can be misleading or at the very least, not 100% accurate. This last statement is not a reflection on Penfolds or on Penfolds Grange; it’s a statement on stated alcohols in general.
I’ve recently published updated notes on Penfolds Grange 1990, Penfolds Grange 1996, Penfolds Grange 1999, Penfolds Grange 2009. I also re-published my note on Penfolds Grange 1955.
So here goes.
Penfolds Grange Alcohol Levels: A Vintage-by-Vintage Study (1951 to Present):
1951 – 13.5% (Experimental release).
1952 – 13.6%
1953 – 12.8%
1954 – 13.2%
1955 – 12.6%
1956 – 13.0%
1957 – 12.6%
1958 – 12.6%
1959 – 12.5%
1960 – 12.8%
1961 – 12.7%
1962 – 12.2%
1963 – 13.3%
1964 – 12.8%
1965 – 13.2%
1966 – 13.4%
1967 – 12.7%
1968 – 12.1%
1969 – 12.4%
1970 – 11.5%
1971 – 12.3%
1972 – 12.0%
1973 – 12.4%
1974 – 12.1%
1975 – 13.4%
1976 – 13.9%
1977 – 13.5%
1978 – 13.3%
1979 – 12.9%
1980 – 12.5%
1981 – 12.7%
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Comment: Twenty vintages of Grange between the 1951 and 1981 ‘releases’, inclusive, carried a stated alcohol of less than 13%. No vintage since has carried a stated alcohol of less than 13%. Penfolds Grange 1981 is therefore the last of the 12.x% Grange releases.
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1982 – 13.5%
1983 – 13.5%
1984 – 14.2%
1985 – 13.1%
1986 – 13.9%
1987 – 13.8%
1988 – 13.5%
1989 – 13.5%
1990 – 13.5%
1991 – 13.5%
1992 – 13.5%
1993 – 13.5%
1994 – 13.5%
1995 – 13.5% – (13.5% Penfolds website; 13.8% Penfolds Rewards of Patience 9th Edition)
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Comment: No vintage of Penfolds Grange prior to 1996 had a stated alcohol level of 14% or higher. Every vintage since and inclusive of Penfolds Grange 1996 has been 14% stated alcohol or higher. This comment is made in the context, and acknowledgement, of alcohol labelling requirements introduced along the way (verifying exact date). These labelling requirements restrict alcohol labelling to plus or minus 1.5% – which, by anyone’s measure, is a significant allowance. A wine labelled 14% alcohol could be 12.5% alcohol or 15.5% alcohol and still be safely within Australian labelling rules.
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1996 – 14.2% – (14.2% Penfolds website; 14% Penfolds Rewards of Patience 9th Edition)
1997 – 14.0%
1998 – 14.5%
1999 – 14.5%
2000 – 14.5% – (14.5% Penfolds website; 14% Penfolds Rewards of Patience 9th Edition)
2001 – 14.5%
2002 – 14.5%
2003 – 14.5%
2004 – 14.3% – (14.3% Penfolds website; 14% Penfolds Rewards of Patience 9th Edition)
2005 – 14.5%
2006 – 14.5%
2007 – 14.5%
2008 – 14.5%
2009 – 14.5%
2010 – 14.5%
2011 – 14.5%
2012 – 14.5%
2013 – 14.5%
2014 – 14.5%
2015 – 14.5%
2016 – 14.5%
2017 – 14.5%
2018 – 14.5%
2019 – 14.5%
2020 – 14.5% – (14.5% Penfolds website; 14% Penfolds Rewards of Patience 9th Edition)
2021 – 14.5%
2022 – TBA.
Footnote: Improvements in weather forecasting, a warmer climate, fashion, advancements in viticulture and winemaking techniques, training and budgets would or could influence these stated alcohol readings. It’s easier and arguably market-advantageous to pick a bit riper now. Changes in label integrity could also be a factor. There's a general view among, let's say, more mature drinkers of Grange that modern or post mid 1990s Grange releases aren't the same as they used to be. This argument says that post the mid 1990s Grange has become richer, more approachable young, brasher. At a base winemaking level Grange is made the same as it always has been. Grange was famously described as an unpalatable concoction way back when. In some wine loving circles it is still described similarly. There's a long held belief that Grange needs twenty years to start showing its best, and within reason or as a general statement this also remains true. So the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Even so, Grange probably is more approachable and enjoyable in its youth now than it once was. It is of course no less cellarable. Whether the effect of these stated alcohol readings is part of this more approachable theory or not is worth discussing over a drink. It seems likely. At the very least, this list presented in one hit as it is above does its own talking and tells its own story.
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Photo: I took the above image of Penfolds Magill HQ last week as I waited for the bus to take us back to Adelaide Airport. The image was taken on my Pixel phone. The light was nice. The estate, as always, immaculate.
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My primary and initial source of these figures was the individual pdfs of each vintage of Penfolds Grange, available by searching the Penfolds website. Andrew Caillard’s Ninth Edition of the Penfolds Rewards of Patience publication was then used to do some double-checking. There was also a fair amount of googling. I wouldn’t be surprised if some minor adjustments are yet made but I have tried to be as accurate as possible.
