1980 Penfolds Grange Hermitage
Outstanding vintage
Drinking Window: Now – 2025
Deep crimson brick red. Intense plum/blackberry/menthol/mocha/liquorice aromas. The tannins are pronounced but offset by stylish, rich, concentrated dark berry/chocolaty fruit. A powerful and generously proportioned wine.
96% Shiraz, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon. Kalimna Vineyard (Barossa Valley), Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Magill Estate (Adelaide), McLaren Vale and Coonawarra. A fine,warm growing season followed by a cool but late vintage. First vintage adopting consistent use of signature red Penfolds capsules.
Notes souced from Southcorp.
Region: Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Magill, McLaren Vale & Coonawarra.
Grape varieties: 96% Shiraz & 4% Cabernet Sauvignon
Alcohol: 12.5% Total acids: 6 grams per litre. pH: 3.60
Growing season/vintage: Generally good growing season with fine and warm conditions followed by a cool vintage. Another unusual vintage in that the grapes ripened late, but very fully.
Comments: "A good year and quite a good wine", said Max Schubert (with a degree of understatement) in 1993. Rated 96/100 points by Robert Parker in 1990.
Tasting notes:size> Intense fruit, beautifully balanced and structured. Overall impression of elegance. Great potential. (Rewards of Patience, 1st ed., 1985)
Classy. Developed, but with greater complexity still to come. Beginning to drink well. (Rewards of Patience, 2nd ed., 1990)
A very Rhôney wine, with a decidedly smoky Côte Rôtie style. Impressive. (Robert Joseph, WINE [UK], June 1992)
Deep red to brick red. Sweet, plummy nose with toasty oak, some development and a trace of camphor. Very good fruit intensity and balance in the mouth: powerful and long with concentration but also suppleness. Very good strength and cellaring potential. Drink 1995-2015. (Huon Hooke, 1993)
Sweet, plum-like, brambly aromas with dark chocolate and earthy characters developing. Tightly-packed, plummy, cedary flavours on the palate combined with lovely ripe but firm tannins and length give this wine both elegance and power. Has the structure and concentration to support long-term development. Another classic. (Rewards of Patience, 3rd ed., 1994)
Sinewy, with good cassis/cherry fruit. Tannin, fruit and oak all in balance. (Ultimate Grange Experience, Nov. 1994)
"Medium red/purple. Intense, fragrant chocolate/cherry/prune/dried fig aromas. Dense and chewy with generously ripe, prune/chocolate fruit flavours, pronounced grainy tannins and superb length. Will emerge as a classic Grange. Drink between now and 2015." (Southcorp Wines, The Rewards of Patience, Fourth Edition, March 2000)