Nick's Article: Penfolds 2010 Grange & 2012 Yattarna

What an incredible year, with two releases of the top Penfolds wines as they move to bring the program forward six months from May to October where it will now remain for the future. And the highlight this time around is the commanding position of the two top wines, a pair that unequivocally assert their authority over their kin in a way that we’ve not yet seen before. 

Grange 2010 was presented alongside the 2008 and 2009 at the annual release tasting a couple of weeks ago. To put some context around the new release and, alongside two very good companion vintages, this tasting left no doubt that this is one of the “great Granges” and certainly the best wine they’ve made in the modern era under winemaker Peter Gago’s watch. It is a statement of Penfolds’ considerable vineyard resources, an outstanding vintage for South Australia and dutifully, respectfully honed winemaking. The result is a Grange that will be long admired and a wine that will now need close to two decades to reveal its full potential. 

From another outstanding vintage in 2012, the top tier Yattarna chardonnay is one of the highlights this time around. In past releases, it has been closely marked by the other top Penfolds chardonnay, the Reserve Bin (a wine from the Adelaide Hills), but the order is clearly established here. This wine possesses the kind of weight, purity, class, structure and carefully constructed complexity that sets the world’s greatest chardonnay wines apart from the merely good. 

Penfolds continues to be one of the benchmark wine producers of Australia that has the ability to make two pinnacle quality wines from Australia’s most important red and white grapes types – chardonnay and shiraz. Don’t miss these. (Photo courtesy of Penfolds)

Click for notes and scores.

2010 Penfolds Shiraz South Australia Grange Bin 95
2012 Penfolds Chardonnay South Australia Yattarna Bin 144

Nick Stock is a renowned Australian wine writer, author, presenter and filmmaker who reports on his worldwide wine tasting experiences for JamesSuckling.com.