An outstanding highly concentrated Grenache with spectacular colour, made from 50 year old bush vines and matured for 12 months in a combination of older American & French oak hogsheads. Totally opaque black purple colour with deep black mauve hue. Magnificent nose of dark chocolate, raspberry, spice and liquorice. Mouthfilling palate, with colossal body weight for Grenache, comparable to Clarendon Hills Romas. Huge flavours of ripe raspberries, spice, liquorice and vanilla followed by a hint of prune. Perfect balance, fine grained tannins with very long, very ‘joosy’ aftertaste of raspberry, spice, liquorice and vanilla. A blockbuster of a wine that has neither been fined nor filtered so that no flavour has been stripped out.
Cellar 4-5 years (2008-2009)
Alc/Vol: 14.5% Other Reviews.....
Penfolds Cellar Reserve Grenache 2002
95 points
High-yielding Grenache produces weak, fruit juice-like wine; low-yielding vines produce plenty of flavour, but not always structure. This has both, with intense raspberry/blackberry aromas, then a rich, beautifully textured and structured palate; fine tannins and superb mouthfeel. Reminiscent of the Mark Shields Memorial Wine.
Best drinking: Now-2012
'The Weekend Australian - Halliday's Top 100'
The 2002 Grenache Cellar Reserve is a terrific effort. Produced from a 75-year-old Barossa vineyard, and aged completely in old wood, it exhibits a fabulously complex bouquet of licorice, kirsch liqueur, and spice box, a great mouthfeel, huge body, and lovely elegance as well as freshness. It is a terrific example of old vine Barossa Grenache that should drink well for 5-10 years.
95 Points
Robert Parker - The Wine Advocate # 161 (Oct 2005)
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