Grange La Chapelle 2022 rushed to market
Maybe it’s because of the disastrous financial performance of Penfolds’ mothership company, Treasury Wine Estates (the TWE share price is now two-thirds lower than it was three years ago). Maybe it’s to help bring in some much-needed cash following the two billion dollar gross overspend on American wine assets Daou and Frank Family Vineyards. Or maybe it’s just so that it can be poured at the upcoming Wine Paris 2026. But whatever the reason, Penfolds has rushed the second release of its Grange La Chapelle wine to market: it was set for release in March this year, but last week the embargo was suddenly lifted. The wine is available now.
The $3500 Grange La Chapelle 2021 has now been followed by the $3500 Grange La Chapelle 2022 (2600 euro). As with the 2021, the 2022 is a 50/50 blend of 100% shiraz from each producer. The wine is matured in a combination of new American oak (Grange) and new/used French oak (La Chapelle). The La Chapelle component is of course from the Hill of Hermitage in the Rhone, France, while the Grange component is from the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and Coonawarra, in Australia.
Accompanying this 2022 release is a press release that’s littered, arguably appropriately, with a set of fanciful quotes that say a lot without saying anything. Penfolds winemaker Peter Gago said, “If 2021 introduced Grange La Chapelle then 2022 welcomes La Chapelle Grange – interchangeably, assuredly, sensitively, convincingly.”
La Chapelle winemaker Caroline Frey said, “Grange La Chapelle is a conversation between two hemispheres. With this second vintage, building on the foundation laid in 2021, the identity of the wine is firmly established, carried by the singularity and magic of the 2022 vintage.”
Peter Gago said, “The right things happened at the right times across the two disparate growing seasons. This 50:50 blend has woven a majestic Syrah/Shiraz exemplar. One for the ages.”
The press release itself – more coherently – says, “Embodying Australian boldness and French finesse, Grange La Chapelle 2022 is a wine that speaks two languages fluently yet tells one compelling story.”
That compelling story is that a market exists for exclusive wine play things, and so exclusive wine play things must be concocted. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.
The 2022 Grange La Chapelle was shown to Australian wine media at the general Penfolds tasting held on a cold, wet day in Adelaide in the middle of 2025. Any note on this wine has been embargoed since. It was served that day as wine umber 20 of 23 wines. Penfolds Grange 2021, that day, was served as wine thirteen.
Straight from my notebook:
Penfolds Grange La Chapelle 2022
The first words to come to mind: it’s noticeably and impressively harmonious. It has melded. Plums, black cherries, cream, flings of aromatic herbs but not exaggeratedly so. Aromatically there’s a pan juices note, like roast lamb and rosemary. The palate itself has a gentle saltiness. The finish is creamy but also spicy, peppery, earthen and herbal; it’s fine-grained, and in both sensation and in shape it has a feel of difference to the other Penfolds wares. The length of this palate is exceptional it has to be said. the aftertaste is so minerally, so rock-strewn. It feels as though there’s some alcohol warmth but otherwise it’s not short of magnificence. It’s arguably a better wine than 2021 Grange, or it is if intrigue is a measure you value.
97/100.
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