I’m old enough (sadly) to have been around when Grange wasn’t famous.
Penfolds Grange is to Australian wine what AC-DC was to Australian music. As youngsters, we couldn’t believe AC-DC wasn’t known outside Australia, as their music was better than the vast majority of stuff coming out of the UK and the USA. We used to go watch them, believe it or not, at the local pub here in Melbourne on a Saturday night. Then voila, they were “discovered” and became world famous, we virtually never saw them again.
Grange in the late 70’s, early 80’s, was around $10 a bottle on release, freely available at any decent wine store and you could pick up many previous vintages too, if you were so inclined. At university I played semi-professional sport, called VFL football, and every October, Id’ cash my small pay check, go off to the large wine retailer and buy 8-10 dozen bottles of the stuff. I ended up with over 60 cases in cellar at one stage. Happy days, couldn’t believe more people overseas didn’t know about this stuff. Then, sadly for me, it was “discovered” and the price quickly became absurd (and still is). My 700-800 bottle stash of the stuff is down to about 20
Stylistically, there has been a MASSIVE change in the wine, absolutely huge. Schubert and Ditter’s Granges were basically undrinkable upon release. I’ll never forget opening a 75, the last of Max’s wines, at release in 1981 and thinking this won’t be drinkable until about 2020 (in those days that seemed light years away). I left about 70% of the bottle open for a week, and at that stage, hints of friuot started poking out. It was all gone 10 days after opening, not a trace of oxidation. That vintage has now reached maturity and is absolutely glorious.
Since 86, the wine has become a totally different beast, it is actually drinkable at release, and whilst it will clearly cellar beautifully, I doubt any modern vintage will reach the heights of Max’s wines. Indeed, the “discovered” vintage, 1990 is pretty much fully mature and is nowhere near the wines of the 60’s 70’s and very early 80’s. Still, the Americans and Chinese love the modern Grange, so that is a good thing for Penfolds, who seem to be thriving on the $1000 price tag for a huge production wine. They have become the supreme Aussie wine marketer.
If you get the chance, put a 1990 Grange up against a well-cellared 1990 St Henri, blind, and you will be very surprised with the result.