I so look forward to the release of the Penfolds Collection. It’s a high point in my wine year. Have you noticed that most of the wines in this release are just 2 years old these days? And have you noticed how bored Penfold’s Wein Meister Peter Gago is with the whole thing? He doesn’t look happy, does her? He looks like he’s ready to retire.
For a winemaker, Gago has made huge profits for his masters. We have to give him credit for getting people to spend mega dollars on seriously silly Penfolds Follies. Like the $167,000 ampoule, and the $100,000 music cabinet. Check my last post on this subject for more details – The World is Not Enough
However, Gago’s master stroke was the g series, those blends of different vintages. The g5 is the latest, a five-vintage blend of Granges stretching back to 2010 that sells for $3500 a single 750 ml bottle. They pour bottles from 5 vintages into a vat, stir the blend and bottle it under a fancy new label. Then they sell it at 4 times the price of the current vintage Grange.
Hang on, you actually have to express interest in writing to Penfolds. You can’t just rock into your local Dan Murphy’s and grab a case. Keep in mind that, for the $3500 asking price of single bottle of g5, you can buy 5 pitch-perfect Granges such as the 1976, 1986, 1990, 1991 or 1996 at auction.
That’s right: 5 bottles of the best Granges made in the last 50 years for the same money as a single bottle of g5. That’s money for jam; that’s sheer genius. Yes I know, some would call Penfolds greedy. I only hope they give Peter Gago a Rolex for his retirement celebs, not a citizen as they did for Max Schubert.
At Last, the $1000 Grange
I guess it was only a matter of time before they broke the sound barrier with Grange, since special bottlings of other reds have done that many times, leaving the Grand Icon down there scratching with the chooks.
A couple of years ago, Penfolds got together with champagne maker Thiénot, and launched a champagne under a label that carried the names of both wineries. ‘We have re-ignited our love affair with France,’ Peter Gago told the media, ‘a special place for Penfolds where our winemaker Max Schubert was inspired to create Grange.’ This is a long bow to draw, even for Gago, since Max fell in love with Bordeaux, where he observed how they made red wines. He never went to champagne to the best of my knowledge.
Gago Goes Global
You could argue that it makes more sense for Penfolds to sell blends of Napa Valley and Bordeaux reds. It’s hardly logical, but clearly the big wine company’s 100-odd labels don’t offer nearly enough choice for its loyal customers.
‘As expected,’ writes Huon Hooke, ‘the wines are of very high quality; what is perhaps less anticipated is their lofty pricing.’ That comment took me by surprise, given Penfold’s track record of charging ludicrous piles of money for reds of no great distinction. The pinnacle of the international offerings is Penfolds x Dourthe II Cabernet Shiraz Merlot (AUD $500) – Bordeaux and Barossa Valley.
Jamie Goode was at the launch, taking photos.
‘This is the start of our French winemaking journey,’ Peter Gago told the wine media. ‘Our main objective? To remain true to the winemaking ethos of both wineries, to deliver the best blend possible, to ideally make Bordeaux and South Australia proud. This wine is not about bigness or boldness or assertion. It is blended to convey an ethereal lightness, subtlety on the palate – sensitively binding two hemispheres, Old World and New.’
Ethereal lightness? From Penfolds? The home of over-ripe, over-worked blockbuster reds? I’m choking on a glass of 1996 Bin 389 as I read this. I’m lost for words, or maybe just lost?
‘It’s about curiosity and experimentation,’ says Penfolds chief winemaker Emma Wood. ‘We’re not about competing with French wines – it’s about making a “Penfolds wine” from France.’ Are you confused yet? I’m lost AND confused.
More Space Travel
In a unique move,’ the Robb Report tells us, ‘Penfolds will enable the public to celebrate the 2022 Collection through an innovative three-day event platform – “Venture Beyond By Penfolds” – to be held at Sydney’s Carriageworks.
‘The nightly live show will include wines from the new collection, a space-themed menu by chef Nelly Robinson (delivered in a red rocket?), live entertainment and music from Client Liaison and DJ Dan Lywood as well as an immersive experience by BabeKuhl and masterclasses led by a Penfolds winemaker.’
I can hardly wait for Gago’s next move – what will it be? A Rosé from the dark side of the moon?
The Awful Truth
Guess what – someone finally spotted that the name Kalimna has disappeared from the Bin 28 label. Philip White shared that important detail as long ago as 2015 in a piece he wrote for Adelaide’s InDaily. Kalimna isn’t just any vineyard in the Northern Barossa. It headed Max Schubert’s list of favourite sources for Grange for many years.
‘Instead of revering that special place,’ says Philip, ‘some marketing genius decided to make Kalimna a registered brand name in a more generic sense, so the grapes in this wine come, as the label vaguely admits, from South Australia, which is a fair bit bigger than little ol’ Kalimna. Not to mention quite a lot cheaper, as far as buying grapes goes.’
Philip adds a parting salvo: ‘Maybe the buyer of Penfolds red at these prices is expected to be so breathlessly aspirant that they won’t notice such polish from the propaganda division which somehow lives on in the ruins of Foster’s old Melbourne ramparts. I seriously doubt whether these people actually drink wine.’
Wait, there’s more
Just for fun, I checked the back label of a 1996 Bin 28, and it says ‘the wine is named after Penfolds’ famous vineyard in South Australia.’ It doesn’t say it’s made from Kalimna grapes. It also says South Australia in big letters on both front and back labels. So did Bin 28 ever come from the famous Kalimna vineyard?
When asked by the nosy wine media about Kalimna’s vanishing act, Gago assured them that ‘The importance of the vineyard to the Penfolds story remains as strong as it ever was. With Kalimna we can’t forget where we came from, and we can’t forget that those grapes go into the very best of our very best wine.’
But we can simply forget to mention that the fruit from Kalimna hasn’t gone near the wine once labelled as Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz in years. ‘We attach a lot of emotional energy to it,’ says Gago. ‘And we are doing everything we can in the vineyard to preserve its legacy. It is very Penfolds in every sense, and I don’t think we would ever walk away from Kalimna.’
No, you just didn’t tell us that the wine once called Kalimna Shiraz walked away from us mug punters years ago. I guess this is the final act in Peter Gago’s transformation from wine meister to marketing meister, spinning vacuous fairy floss for his masters.
Footnote
If you’re one of those rare people who buy exalted Penfolds wines to drink, rather than collect them in the hope of impressing their friends, Huon says the 2020 RWT Bin 798 Barossa Shiraz is his pick of the new collection at a modest $200. He also likes Bin 389, St Henri and Bin 150 Maranaga. All cost less than $200.
And there you have the short story.