Sextus
17-04-2014, 08:16 PM
Thought I’d better show you a bottle of the now infamous 1959 Grange Hermitage. Hey! It isn't something we think of very often. Well, well, well out of my price range. :surprise: Even for an attempted bribe!
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/waveflows/grange19592_zps722fdd4a.jpg (http://s92.photobucket.com/user/waveflows/media/grange19592_zps722fdd4a.jpg.html)
And here are three different tasting notes for it:
It was a cool vintage. This wine was released as Bin 95, Bin 46 and Bin 49. Naturally, bottles of this are now rare. Oxidised and porty and overlaid in hay. But boy what a beautifully structured palate. There is no club-footed muscularity here, in the mode of the early 707s. There is brute beauty, of the useful kind, and it’s hard to know what to do with it – except drink lustily of it. Some coarseness here, some twigginess to the flush of honeyed leather. Probably some gamey/barnyardy characters too. But boy I forgive it every mole. Rated : 91 Points; Closure : Cork; Drink : 1975 - 2015;
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/waveflows/grange1959cr_zps521bf09b.jpg (http://s92.photobucket.com/user/waveflows/media/grange1959cr_zps521bf09b.jpg.html)
Tasting notes 2:
The 1959 Penfolds Grange is deep brick red in colour. The nose is dark cherry/demi-glace/bitter chocolate aromas with touches of marmalade. The palate is quite firm, dark cherry, mocha, bitter chocolate and garden herb flavours, grained chalky - almost stemmy - tannins. The wine finishes dry but it still has good flavour length. A cool to mild growing season followed by a generally warm vintage. Matured for a total of 18 months in used American hogsheads. Lasted tasted in 2008, peak drinking now.
Tasting notes 3:
If the Premier was given a Grange from his birth-year, 1959, costing almost $3000, I hope he had the good luck to receive a bottle with a good cork, which had been well cellared, because this vintage is getting a little past its best and should have been drunk by now.
Good bottles could still be very enjoyable – as long as you have a taste for very old red wine. Most people don't, because they seldom get the opportunity.
If your idea of a good red is something young, purple and fruity, you might think '59 Grange resembles an infusion of old boots, used socks and outback dust. Few old Granges are valued anywhere near the $3000 mark. For those that are, it's more about rarity than quality.
The '59 Grange was never a top vintage and its price is high because it is scarce. The '55, on the other hand, is a great and very famous vintage, one of the best, and has a similar auction value, because it's not quite so rare.
If I was Barry O'Farrell, I'd have tried to swap the '59 for a '55.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/waveflows/grange19592_zps722fdd4a.jpg (http://s92.photobucket.com/user/waveflows/media/grange19592_zps722fdd4a.jpg.html)
And here are three different tasting notes for it:
It was a cool vintage. This wine was released as Bin 95, Bin 46 and Bin 49. Naturally, bottles of this are now rare. Oxidised and porty and overlaid in hay. But boy what a beautifully structured palate. There is no club-footed muscularity here, in the mode of the early 707s. There is brute beauty, of the useful kind, and it’s hard to know what to do with it – except drink lustily of it. Some coarseness here, some twigginess to the flush of honeyed leather. Probably some gamey/barnyardy characters too. But boy I forgive it every mole. Rated : 91 Points; Closure : Cork; Drink : 1975 - 2015;
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/waveflows/grange1959cr_zps521bf09b.jpg (http://s92.photobucket.com/user/waveflows/media/grange1959cr_zps521bf09b.jpg.html)
Tasting notes 2:
The 1959 Penfolds Grange is deep brick red in colour. The nose is dark cherry/demi-glace/bitter chocolate aromas with touches of marmalade. The palate is quite firm, dark cherry, mocha, bitter chocolate and garden herb flavours, grained chalky - almost stemmy - tannins. The wine finishes dry but it still has good flavour length. A cool to mild growing season followed by a generally warm vintage. Matured for a total of 18 months in used American hogsheads. Lasted tasted in 2008, peak drinking now.
Tasting notes 3:
If the Premier was given a Grange from his birth-year, 1959, costing almost $3000, I hope he had the good luck to receive a bottle with a good cork, which had been well cellared, because this vintage is getting a little past its best and should have been drunk by now.
Good bottles could still be very enjoyable – as long as you have a taste for very old red wine. Most people don't, because they seldom get the opportunity.
If your idea of a good red is something young, purple and fruity, you might think '59 Grange resembles an infusion of old boots, used socks and outback dust. Few old Granges are valued anywhere near the $3000 mark. For those that are, it's more about rarity than quality.
The '59 Grange was never a top vintage and its price is high because it is scarce. The '55, on the other hand, is a great and very famous vintage, one of the best, and has a similar auction value, because it's not quite so rare.
If I was Barry O'Farrell, I'd have tried to swap the '59 for a '55.