Penfolds Grange: Wine Mecca in the Suburbs with Keith Conlon
It's in Adelaide's suburban backyard, and it's increasingly a Mecca for international wine lovers on their pilgrimage through Australian's internationally rated wine country.
Dr. Penfold's original plantings only 7 km from the colonial capital were for medical purposes, but they grew into the winery that would produce Australia's flagship wine - Penfold's Grange.
The 1955 vintage of the Grange has just been included in the prestigious and popular American Wine Spectators Dozen of the Century. This is amazing.... but, as the magazine puts it, the Grange ushered in a new era in Australian winemaking.
The seeds of the revolution were planted with the arrival of Dr. Christopher Penfold, his wife Mary and daughter Georgina, in the fledging colony of South Australia in 1844. They bought form at Magill, and were soon making port wine from their imported cuttings for their anaemic patients.
They built a cottage and named it after Mary's home in Surrey...... 'The Grange'. Visitors to the restored Magill winery can now join a 'Great Grange Tour' that takes them into their drawing room, before they sample the huge wine that took its name from a humble cottage.
In the late nineteenth century, a substantial bluestone winery complex grew just up the hill in what was then extensive hillside planting. A remaining pocket of a few acres now provides the vintage for Penfold's Magill Estate Shiraz. It is made using the same techniques and tanks that produced one of the great wines of the world.
In the historic vintage cellars there are rows of wax lined square concrete tanks that were the domain of Max Schubert, the visionary in gumboots. As Penfold's chief winemaker, Max was sent to Europe in 1948, where he fell in love with the great long living reds of Bordeaux.
He dared to think he might make such a wine in Australia, and he did! At the time, 90% of the nation's output was sherry and port. Max Schubert's experiment was not just the beginning of a benchmark wine. It was the beginning of the revolution that took Australian 'bottled sunshine' by the shipload to the U.K, U.S and the world. It was the wine that literally changed the landscape, particularly in South Australia, where new mass plantings for export wine still roll across its wine regions.
Visitors on Penfold's Magill daily tour hear however, that all was not so rosy in the pioneering years. Deep in the tunnels cut under the hillside is a grotto to the Grange and its creator. Here the experimental vintages matured in quick, dark, cool cellars crowded with small American oak barrels. That woody, wine smell is still there as the Magill Estate vintage takes in the oak.
The end of one tunnel has a complete collection of the Grange - priceless. The 1951, the first small batch, sits in No. 1 spot in the glass topped display cases. Max Schubert gave them away to friends. At last auction sale, a bottle brought more than $24000.
The tour guides delight in pointing to the 'illegal' Grange vintages. An official company tasting of the first few years' was in Max's words, "absolutely disastrous. No one liked it." He was told, in writing, to desist. He didn't, making three vintages secretly in the depths of the Magill winery.
When the 1955 had matured, it won gold in the Sydney wine show. Max was, of course, asked to start making the Grange again!
The office boy for the Nuriootpa winery had the official go ahead for this wine revolution. Max Schubert had been shifted to Magill and with a swag of night school chemistry lessons to add to his natural talents, he had graduated to chief winemaker. In 1971, he took his beloved Grange to the Paris Wine Olympiad. It took top honours over the great Shiraz of the Rhone. The international accolades have been coming over since.
For its 150th Anniversary, Penfolds gave the historic Magill winery a $10 million treat. The home of the Grange was spruced up for the pilgrims. Max's Grange grotto was laid out and lit for hourly tours, and the old pot still building now sets as a tasting room, and cellar door for the family of reds and whites that are behind the Grange. There's also a minimalist international architecture showpiece restaurant that projects from the hillside complex It offers Grange by the glass, fine cuisine and a stunning view of the city as the sun goes gown.
The American Wine Spectator's elevation of the Grange to 'dozen of the century' status will only add to the stream of visitors to Penfold's historic first winery. They won't be disappointed.
You can visit the Grange Hermitage Vineyard daily and take a tour or visit the tasting rooms. They are at 78 Penfold Rd Magill and you can ph 08 8301 5569 or email info@postcards-sa.com.au for more info.
