2008 Entity Shiraz; John Duval Wines
Opened on Monday night, when it was clearly super but far too young and unpleasantly undrinkable. pepper, spice, black plum, red plum, damsons, fairly elegant nose, much softer, the oak is still prominent but doesn’t blot out the fruit completely. Forest fruit, leaves, mint, eucalyptus, lovely balance, length and poise. Subtle but deep and concentrated. Very young, bottles will need at least 20 years… After three days with 2/3rds of a bottle in the bottle, it is still very young. It holds the alcohol very well and whilst it would drown a Burgundy, it doesn’t feel cumbersome and blowsy after 161 this afternoon. *() or [4+4+4.5+4.5=17+/20]
Not when you know that John Duval was winemaker with them from the 80s to 2000 and head winemaker from the mid-90s, and he pretty much took all the grape grower contracts with him to his own venture from 2000-2001.
He has two cuvées, the Entity 100% Shiraz and the Plexus as predominantly Syrah blend with Mouverdre and Grenache Noir in there as well, which is softer and more appealing in its youth.
Penfolds itself refers to Bin 389 as the “Baby Grange.” Not that I’m one to override the winery, but I’ve had this discussion with my tasting group several times. To me, St. Henri is best suited to be called the baby Grange. Grange is a multi-district blend of mostly Shiraz (with a bit of cab) aged in new American oak barrels. St. Henri is basically the same blend of grapes/districts but aged in large neutral American oak casks. RWT is a 100% Barossa Shiraz and aged in new French barrels. Bin 389 is a multi-district blend, but does not include as many districts as Grange or St. Henri and is predominantly cab (over 50%) with shiraz making up the rest. The comparison really comes from Bin 389 being aged in the Grange barrels from the previous vintage. Clearly, there is no replacement for the Grange, but to me the St Henri has the most similarities to Grange as far as process go…
Personally I find Grange and St Henri to be poles apart, especially in recent years, where the oak treatment seems to have continued to diversify even further.
The St Henri style is again back to it’s origins, with a much more minimal oak influence and lovely pure fruit, whilst Grange has full on fruit intensity with big oak (usually well judged though) to match, thus needing extended aging time. Recent St Henri’s have been very approachable young, and whilst certainly different to Grange, are qualitatively every bit as good IMHO, and most would find them more enjoyable until perhaps the 20 year mark has been passed.
389 is too much of an obvious Cab/Shiraz blend, and whilst Grange usually contains some Cab. in it, is more for adding a bit of structure than for anything else, as the wine pretty much always smells and tastes of pure Shiraz…
Paul, I did say that St Henri and Grange were stylistically similar, just that the St Henri’s winemaking process was closest to Grange when compared to Grange. The one major difference is new oak barrel aging vs neutral cask aging. I think both RWT and 389 are probably more stylistically similar to Grange, but to call something “Baby X,” I think process is more similar to style. I’m sure many others see it the other way.
I seriously doubt he took “pretty much all” the grape grower cotnracts, maybe just a few…There are many many “grange” growers, they select the best ones each year, its not a guaranteed thing.
Being a “Grange” grower is a huge thing still and the prices are very good, would be impossible for Dubal to sweep up all of that volume!
Also, he actually has 3 labels, the Eligo is his theoretical top wine, also a straight Shiraz.
There are actually quite a few wineries who can probably claim this. Its the nature of the penfolds beast, there are no “Grange” suppliers per se. You have a grape supply contract with Penfolds, and they rank you each year on quality of fruit, if you are A1, you grapes MAY end up in Grange.
OK, so the growers won’t themselves know whether their grapes actually got into Grange, but the guy who worked there through 1980 to 2000 and was head-winemaker from about 96-2000 would know exactly which growers got A1 and of those which went into Grange under Gago and Himself (Duval), so if John told me he only uses “Grange growers” he probably knows what he is talking about… I.e he went to them upon leaving because he knows more about who they are than they do. If the growers are watching, if you supply Duval, your grapes got into Grange & the other top Penfold’s wines.
Duval was head winemaker at Penfold’s. What the growers say us irrelevant because I don’t know who his growers are, just what Duval told me!