1976 Penfolds Grange Hermitage
REGIONAL SOURCES: Kalimna (Barossa Valley), Magill, Barossa Valley & Modbury (Adelaide Plains)
GRAPE VARIETIES: 89 per cent Shiraz & 11 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon
ALCOHOL: 13.9 per cent
TOTAL ACIDS: 5.1 grams per litre pH: 3.73
GROWING SEASON/VINTAGE CONDITIONS: Very good with ideal conditions throughout. The warm vintage resulted in big, rich, concentrated wines.Comments: The year of the takeover of Penfolds by the brewer, Tooth & Co, ending three generations of family control. Although 1976 was considered an excellent vintage, the 1976 Grange won only a bronze and two silver medals in Australian wine shows. However, rated 98/100 by Robert Parker in 1990. "More in the old style; a good vintage", said Max Schubert.
Tasting notes: Colour: dense purple-red. Bouquet: pungent aromas; some estery, volatile characters and a ripe mint overlay. Palate: huge fruit, sweet and minty; very ripe but well-balanced fruit flavour; tannin fairly low, oak in balance. (James Halliday, National Times, Nov. 1982)
Very big Grange. Huge fruit, rich and minty. Well-balanced oak. Solid tannin. Needs time. (Rewards of Patience, 1st ed., 1985)
Still a trifle adolescent, but as muscular as a builder's labourer and as poised as a ballet dancer. (Paul Lloyd, Adelaide Advertiser, 1986)
Mammoth Grange, showing developed "coffee bean" and "leather" characters. Firm, but well-balanced. (Rewards of Patience, 2nd ed., 1990)
Rich, dark hue. Sweet, leathery, meaty, honey and plum bouquet. A monumental wine, grippingly tannic, dense and concentrated. Very long term. One of the biggest post-Schubert wines, needing food. Drink from 1995 to 2010. (Huon Hooke, 1993)
Intense licorice/coffee-like, meaty bouquet with hints of plum. Highly concentrated palate with densely-packed, meaty, dark chocolate and licorice-like flavours. Strong but in-balance tannins, fine medium acid and sweetnes of fruit combine to produce a wine of structure and power with excellent long-term potential. (Rewards of Patience, 3rd ed., 1994)
Mellow, with tannin in balance with other flavours. Still improving. (Ultimate Grange Experience, Nov. 1994)
"Youthful purple/red. Intense and concentrated liquorice/chocolate/berry/truffle aromas with touches of earthiness. Palate is very powerful with rich plum/chocolate/berry/ liquorice fruit flavours, thick velvety tannin structure and excellent length. Should be a very long-lived wine. Drink between now and 2015." (Southcorp Wines, The Rewards of Patience, Fourth Edition, March 2000)