1976 Penfolds Grange Hermitage - DAMAGED LABEL

Note: As pictured, this bottle has undergone Penfold's Clinic test in 2022. The cork and foil were replaced.

***This wine is 50 years old and almost certainly past its prime. Please consider carefully before purchasing***

Other Reviews....
Consistently one of the most awesome wines ever made at Grange, this blend of 89% Shiraz and 11% Cabernet Sauvignon (13.9% alcohol) was the first Australian wine to cost $20 upon release. I have had this wine six separate times, every time rating it between 96 and 100. It had a phenomenal showing at Penfolds' Magill estate. The color is an opaque purple, the wine massive, full-bodied, and to me, the quintessential Grange. Notes of blackberry liqueur intermixed with cassis, charcoal, new saddle leather, and underbrush resonate from the glass. Huge, thick, unctuously textured, with extraordinary concentration but perfect harmony among all of its elements, this is a prodigious Grange that is still not fully mature. Anticipated maturity: 2004-2020. A legend for sure!

100 points
Robert Parker - The Wine Advocate 2002

Notes Sourced from Southcorp Wines

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)