A lot of Australians have been entrenched with the idea that Penfold's Grange is the pinnacle of wine drinking.
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Popular culture has assisted in turning the South Australian icon that garnered world recognition into more of a mythical creature than bottle of fermented grape juice.
Lofty price tags starting at $800 retail for a recent vintage and then shooting up to well into thousands and thousands of dollars for rare old vintages off a restaurant wine list, keep that unattainable concept fresh in most people's minds.
Is it worth it though?
I get asked this question a lot and the first question you need to ask yourself is why do you want to buy it?
If it is just for quaffing in front of a Netflix series with a box of Jatz and that dip you wish you bought a second one of, then no.
Special occasion then yes, milestone birthday then yes, but only if you are really into wine.
Buying Grange for yourself and not being into wine is like purchasing a Ferrari and only ever taking it to KFC for Mountain Dew and Popcorn Chicken, it doesn't make sense.
Secondly where am I buying it from?
There is a lot of Grange out there.
Plenty of people have bought it and never opened it.
Plenty of people have inherited bottles over the years, passed on from relatives far too concerned with other things than drinking it.
This gluttony of back vintage Granges creates the most prominent concern of how the wine has been stored.
Most people don't own underground cellars or temperature-controlled fridges perfect for keeping the wine immaculate.
So, when buying it or storing it keep the following in mind:
- Make sure it isn't next to a heater or mounted above someone's fireplace. Heat is you enemy and it will cook the wine.
- Tougher but make sure the wine hasn't been prone to constant vibrations. Under the stairs for twenty years or under someone's bed (I saw this once, mice had chewed at the corks) is perhaps not ideal, vibrations are not good to the integrity of the liquid on the inside.
- Light is an enemy to wine. Sitting in the sunroom catching the morning sun is going to speed up the ageing process of that vintage you have been hanging onto for your daughter's 21st.
- The cork, that vital bit of material from Portugal that keeps the wine away from the rest of the world. If this has failed the wine is gone. Lay the wine down keep the liquid in contact with the cork to prevent it from drying out.
There is nothing worse in the liquor world than finding out that special bottle you have been hanging onto for longer than the Simpsons have been gracing our screens is ruined.
Mid-anniversary you discover that the 1980 Grange for your 40th birthday is perhaps better included in the bolognaise sauce you're attempting to master during a COVID lockdown.
If you want to try Grange, get a group together of like-minded people and share the cost.
If you want to buy to invest, then be prepared to protect your investment and wait a long time to see an increase in value.
If you want it to brag to your friends, maybe find new friends or priorities.
If you love wine, have a little money and patience then getting the right Grange at the right time can be one of the most spectacular drinking experiences you can have from an Australian wine.
David Collins is the restaurant manager and sommelier at Charred, he has been studying wine and the wine industry for several years and will write a wine column for the Central Western Daily every second Saturday.
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