Penfolds Grange La Chapelle 2022

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Bottle of Penfolds Grange La Chapelle 2022.

Penfolds Grange La Chapelle 2022
AU$3500, 14% alcohol, cork.

  • 50% – 2022 La Chapelle, France, Hill of Hermitage, Rhône Valley.

  • 50% – 2022 Grange, Australia, a collection of select South Australian vineyards (Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra).

This review was part of the release article on Grange La Chapelle.

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 the palate is exceptional, the aftertaste is so minerally, so rock-strewn. It feels as though there’s some alcohol warmth but otherwise this wine is not short of magnificence. It’s arguably a better wine than 2021 Grange, or it is if intrigue is a measure you value.

97 points – Campbell Mattinson.

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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