Grange and Lovedale

[David Pope]

Hello from England. I have a big birthday to celebrate soon and I plan to open a number of wines to 'celebrate' it. I'll be taking some to a dinner including a bottle each of Penfold's Grange and McWilliams Lovedale semillon.

I have the following vintages: Grange 1981, 1988 and 1990; and Lovedale 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2005.

I wonder which vintage of each wine is showing best now. Any suggestions?

Thanks

David

[winetastic]

Probably the 2000 Lovedale would be the pick of the bunch right now, though honestly 1998 and 2001 are right in their drinking window as well, cant go wrong with any of them IMO.

[TiggerK]

Probably the 2000 Lovedale would be the pick of the bunch right now, though honestly 1998 and 2001 are right in their drinking window as well, cant go wrong with any of them IMO.

Agreed, except for the extreme variability of the corks used around that period. Better take a backup or two.

For Grange, they'll have their own strengths and weaknesses, depends on taste I suppose. For me, the older the better so I'd normally go 1981 with 88 as a backup in case of taint. But the 1988 may well be the better wine overall, so perhaps the 81 in reserve. The 1990 is a big beast so for 'Parker Palates', that would be the most suitable, but would also benefit from more time ideally.

[Bobthebuilder]

I'd just start with the oldest and work upwards from there
Not like any of them are two young to drink
Except maybe the lovedale 2005, had that at Christmas and felt it could possibly benefit with a bit more sleep
As good as it is now

[GraemeG]

Hi David,
Corks will make the Lovedales a lottery. If the 05 is under screwcap then it could wait but should be very good.
I think 1990 Grange will feel young.
So, conditional on packaging, the older the better!
cheers,
GG

[Mahmoud Ali]

I say the older the better (especially if you have a number of bottles) unless you want to wait for the oldest to improve further.

Mahmoud.

[Redback]

Hi David,

I had a 2000 Lovedale a few years ago and was drinking well. As Graeme mentioned in his post, the condition of the cork will be the key here.

[David Pope]

Thanks for the replies.

I appear to have just one bottle each of the 1998 and 2000 Lovedale remaining. The 2000 looks to be a slightly deeper colour. Is this likely to be a problem? I'm just wondering if it has aged more quickly than the 1998, perhaps as a result of less than ideal storage at some point? Or am I just getting paranoid?

[Mahmoud Ali]

When it comes to white wine I would consider the darker looking wine to be more mature and opt to open that first. With red wines it is the other way around, the lighter-looking red indicating advanced maturity. Of course this is comparing similar if not the same wines.

[TiggerK]

The 2000 shouldn't be darker than the 98, depends how much darker I suppose. Maybe storage but most likely a cork that has let a bit more air in over the years. Like I said up top, it's an often painful cork lottery with most Oz wines from the 90's and early 00's, hence the switch to screwcap for many around 2002-2005.

The lightest wine is likely the best one for Semillon, but it Schrödinger's Semillon in the meantime. Let us know how it goes! Did you decide on the Grange?

[David Pope]

For the Grange, I may open the 1981. I'm taking about 20 wines to the restaurant, so back-ups are not really an option!

I have read in some places that Grange is not highly regarded in 1981. I'm sure it was either in the Rewards of Patience or some other guide that the 1981 had a bare two stars out of five, although the two bottles I've had have been fine.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Hello David,

The Penfold's Rewards of Patience doesn't use stars to rate individual wines but does use single stars to indicate the better vintages. In the 80s only two vintages, the 1983 and 1986, have stars adjacent to the vintage. I have the sixth edition of The Rewards of Patience (2008) and there the drinking window of the 1981 Grange is "Now to 2020"

The tasting note reads:
"Deep brick red. Earthy/meaty/cedar/demi-glace aromas with some farmyard characters. The palate is generous and powerful with plenty of chocolate/meaty/cedar flavoursand fine loose-knit but ample chalky tannins. A finely structured wine. Probably best to drink soon. 89% shiraz, 11% cabernet."

Among the panel of tasters:
Neil Beckett said of the wine: 1981 is increasingly expressive in the glass with black fruits, spice, vanillin, earthy, sandalwood aromas and tangerine top notes. It has lovely refinement of texture and is effortlessly expansive on the mid-palate with saturated, sustained chocolaty flavours."

Joshua Greene said: "1981 is definitely ready now. It was possibly better a few years ago with mature gentle red fruits, blueberries and rich prune fruit. I found the palate a touch metallic."

The 6th edition was published in 2008 so I assume that the wines were tasted the previous year so these notes are ten years old. However, despite the comments suggesting that the wine was ready to drink, the drinking window is till 2020 so clearly they did not feel that it was in any danger of falling over. Depending on the provenance of your bottle you may be hitting it right at the peak.

Do let us know how the Grange and Lovedale fare at the tasting.

Cheers ...................... Mahmoud.

[David Pope]

Thanks all. I'm not sure where I obtained the impression that the 1981 Grange was given only two stars out of five! I have a copy of Robin Bradley's Australian and New Zealand Wine vintages guide for 1995! He gives the 1981 six stars out of seven and suggests it could be drunk from 1997.

I have a copy of Rewards of Patience published in 2004. The tasting notes suggest it is a big, tannic wine.

My two bottles of the 1981 look in good condition. levels are just below the base of the neck, capsules look flawless and there are no signs of seepage. So I might open one of these and leave the 1988 and 1990 for another day.

[David Pope]

I should add that I'll be serving a lot of wines in pairs and I'm planning to serve the Grange alongside J-L Chave's Hermitage rouge 1995! Rewards of Patience suggests that the 1988 Grange is much more elegant than the 1981.

[David Pope]

Hello all

I remembered that I'm supposed to let you know how good the Lovedale and Grange turned out to be. Well, in the end I served the Lovedale 1998 and the Grange 1981. Both were in excellent condition and there was no hint of corkiness or any other problem.

The Lovedale was superb and one of the best Hunter semillons I've tried. It couldn't be faulted at all. The Grange showed plenty of fruit and structure and was much less mature than I was expecting. Several of us felt that it hadn't really developed all that much. On this showing it could be elft for another decade or longer.

The full results of the evening in question can be viewed on wine-pages at http://wine-pages.com/community/threads ... y-do.3803/

I hope it's OK to post this link.

Thanks everyone for their advice.

[Bobthebuilder]

David,

A belated happy birthday!
That's some serious lineup you had there, and sounds like a fantastic night.
Great to see it was experienced by serious wine lovers who appreciated those fine bottles.
And also to see our Graeme G in your regular forum too!

Cheers,
Nic