Few wines are as legendary as the Penfolds Grange. This year, the Grange marks its 75th anniversary—a milestone three-quarters of a century in the making—and Kuala Lumpur was among the cities chosen to raise a glass to its remarkable journey. Recently, Penfolds hosted an exclusive vertical tasting and wine pairing dinner here, inviting guests to trace the Grange’s evolution from a secret experimental blend to one of the most decorated fine wines on the planet.
To mark the occasion, we experienced a vertical tasting paired with a bespoke tasting menu designed to showcase Grange’s structure, complexity, and, most impressively, its ageability. Guests, including ourselves, moved through four decades of vintages in a single evening, from 1983 to 1991, 2001, and 2012, watching firsthand how the wine’s tannins soften and its character matures with time. These were the very qualities that first convinced Max Schubert, Penfolds’ first chief winemaker, that Australia could produce a red wine built to last.
In Act I of the night’s event, we were ushered into a dim, smoke-filled room where we would take our space at each individual plinth. A single wineglass of the Grange 2018 was set on the plinth. As we swirled the wine, breathing in its powerful, layered aroma of ripe blackberry, blackcurrant reduction, fennel, and anise, the voices of Penfolds’ first Chief Winemaker Max Schubert; Chief Winemaker Peter Gago; and Director of Winemaking Steph Dutton, filled the air. In the darkened room, it felt as though they were right there with us—certainly one of them was—bringing us through the storied history of the Grange.
When the lights came back on, we enjoyed the rest of our Grange 2018 before being led into Act II: a three-course dinner paired with Grange vintages from 1983 to 1991, 2001, and 2012. It was a feast for the senses, discovering the nuances between each course and each vintage. Penfolds’ Chief Winemaker Peter Gago led the tasting, telling us,
For Grange to reach its 75th anniversary, it has to be real. It’s never been about clever wordsmithing or fancy packaging—it’s always been about what’s in the bottle. The stylistic template is tried and proven, and people are still discovering it. That’s both the privilege and the challenge of Grange.
A secret cellar and a vision ahead of its time
In 1950, Max Schubert travelled to Europe to study winemaking practices in Spain and Portugal. A side trip to Bordeaux inspired Schubert, who was captivated by the region’s cellared-style wines and returned to Adelaide dreaming of crafting a full-bodied Australian red capable of the same graceful ageing.
By 1951, he had produced his first experimental wine, naming it “Grange Hermitage” after Grange Cottage, the first Australian home of Penfolds’ founders, Dr Christopher and Mary Penfold. The path from there wasn’t smooth, however. In 1957, a tasting held for senior management and wine experts was met with sharp criticism, and Schubert was ordered to shut the project down. Rather than abandon his vision, he continued in secret at the Magill Estate underground cellars, working alongside Jeffrey Penfold Hyland to produce three “hidden” vintages in 1957, 1958, and 1959.
Vindication came in 1960, when the Penfolds board recognised the value of allowing the wine to age, thus reinstating the Grange and setting it on course to become the global icon it is today. By 2001, on its 50th anniversary, the Grange had been officially listed as a South Australian heritage icon.
What makes the Grange, Grange
Part of the Grange’s enduring appeal lies in its consistency throughout these 75 years. From those first experimental vintages to the bottles poured today, the winemaking style has remained remarkably consistent: a perfumed, concentrated wine built on Shiraz’s rich fruit and ripe tannins, layered with the fragrance of American oak. A portion of Cabernet is often used to sharpen the wine’s aromatics and palate structure, though several vintages—including 1951, 1952, 1963, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2011—are 100% Shiraz.
The process is deliberate: partial barrel fermentation, followed by 18 to 20 months of oak maturation, before further bottle ageing allows the wine to fully evolve. True to Penfolds’ broader philosophy, the Grange is built on multi-regional sourcing, using only the best fruit from across South Australia each vintage—a practice overseen by the Penfolds Winemaking Team, whom the House describes as custodians connected by an unbroken “red thread” across generations.
37-plus perfect scores and counting
Few wines can claim the consistent critical acclaim that the Grange has amassed over 75 years, comprising more than 37 perfect scores from wine critics worldwide—an extraordinary feat for any single label.
Some standout moments include:
- 1990 Grange was named Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year.
- 2001 Grange was crowned Wine of the Year by The Wall Street Journal in 2003.
- 2008 Grange made history as the first Australian wine to score a perfect 100 points from both Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate—a feat only ten other wines in the world had achieved before it.
- 2018 Grange, one of the most decorated vintages to date, collected multiple 100-point scores from critics across Australia, the US, the UK, and Europe.
- 2021 Grange, one of the more recent releases, has already earned a perfect 100 points from Ken Gargett and a strong 20+/20 from Matthew Jukes.
The wine’s collectability has followed its critical reputation into the auction room. In 2022, a complete collection of Grange vintages spanning 1951 to 2018 sold for AUD$430,000 (approximately RM1.2 million) at Langton’s Rewards of Patience auction—the highest price ever recorded for a full Grange collection. A single bottle of the elusive 1951 vintage fetched approximately AUD$157,000 (approximately RM448,000) at a Langton’s auction in 2021.
75 years of excellence
Turning 75 is a marker of just how far the wine has travelled from its uncertain, almost-cancelled beginnings. What started as a secret project in an underground cellar is now regarded as the ultimate expression of the Penfolds House Style, a benchmark against which the house’s winemaking quality is measured. As Penfolds continues to write new chapters after over 180 years in business, Grange remains its most eloquent one: a reminder that some of the world’s greatest wines were nearly never made at all. Gago perhaps puts it best: “With Grange, it’s more than a wine in a bottle. There’s an emotional bond. People remember where they bought it, who they shared it with, and the moments it marked. That’s what real wine is—it’s about storytelling, emotional connectivity, and the quality of what’s in the glass. True luxury isn’t something you switch on and off; you live it, breathe it, and maintain it over time.”
The Penfolds Grange is available at fine wine retail stores such as The Botle, Above 5, Angel Cask, and The Chamber. For more information, visit https://www.penfolds.com/en-my/home.
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