Penfolds Grange 2021: 100 Points & the Dawn of a New Era
“This is as close to a perfect Grange as I can imagine” - Ken Gargett
Has the La Chapelle collaboration influenced the new style of the 2021 Grange?
The 2021 release marks a fascinating moment in Grange history. Launched alongside the unprecedented Grange La Chapelle 2021—a 50/50 Franco-Australian blend crafted in collaboration with Rhône royalty Caroline Frey—this year's Grange seems to whisper rather than roar.
While critics have already hailed it as a “future classic” and awarded multiple perfect scores, we believe it goes one step further. In our view, the 2021 Grange is finer, more elegant, and more refined than any Grange before it. The power is still there, but it's cloaked in grace. It’s less about overt muscle and more about detail, balance, and sophisticated precision.
So, the question lingers—has this new partnership with France subtly reshaped Australia’s most iconic wine? Or has Grange simply evolved on its own terms, with timing that feels more than coincidental?
20+/20 Points - MATTHEW JUKES
This is a spectacular Grange. This will go down as another landmark Grange… I have never tasted a Grange with this individuality and presence. 20+/20 Points.
99 Points - TYSON STELZER
The dream combination of a cool spring, average summer and mild autumn furnished slow and even ripening. The wizardry of Peter Gago and his team have juggled this juxtaposition with masterful skill. A core of black fruits of all kinds reverberates with dramatic power, accented with liquorice straps, sarsaparilla and high cocoa dark chocolate. The signature volatile acidity of Grange has been impeccably judged. The tannin profile is a wonder to behold, a captivating splay of fine-grained fruit and oak structure that envelops the mouth, wonderfully elevated and interlocked with cool season acidity. This is a vintage that demands at least 30 years before approaching and will confidently continue to marvel for half a century and perhaps beyond
100 Points - KEN GARGETT
Quite simply, a wow wine. Maroon/black in hue, one simply gets lost in the nose, just endlessly sniffing the most glorious cassis notes, along with black fruits, blueberries, coffee beans, aniseed, mulberries, delicatessen meats, tobacco leaves, plums and graphite.
The wine is seamless, intense and immaculate with knife-edge balance. It simply dances with joy. There oak is there, undeniably, but it is so well handled that you almost have to think twice. So complex already, and yet so harmonious and decadent.
Silky tannins, bright acidity, the intensity never wavers for an instant and there is incredible length — Rutherglen muscat length. This is as close to a perfect Grange as I can imagine. Fifty years, if you think you can last that long. A Lord-take-me-now wine, if ever there was one. 100 Points.
Use the discount code: Grange2021 -
during checkout to receive the special price $950.00
Artistic Expression: Grange’s Heritage & Identity
The Grange La Chapelle 2021 project was bold, unprecedented, and—frankly—a little bit mad. Merging the identities of two of the world’s most iconic Shiraz/Syrah producers from opposite ends of the earth was always going to raise eyebrows. But the result wasn’t a gimmick—it was a work of art.
Described by Penfolds' Peter Gago as a “vinous painting,” and compared in the press to the Beatles and Stones making an album together, La Chapelle was a creative leap—an exercise in what could happen when tradition was traded for collaboration, when heritage was honoured but boundaries were ignored.
And while the 2021 Grange is not part of the joint wine, it seems to share the same artistic spirit. It’s more expressive, more textural, more nuanced. There’s a sense that Penfolds is no longer content with merely maintaining a legacy—they’re pushing it forward.
What’s remarkable is that they’ve done it without abandoning Grange’s identity. The wine still has the brooding fruit, the length, the presence. But it also has detail, elegance, and a confidence that whispers rather than shouts. It feels informed by a global dialogue—as if Penfolds has seen what’s possible when you open the door to outside influence, and brought that knowledge home.
It’s not a revolution. It’s an evolution. And the 2021 Grange might be the most exciting chapter yet.
A New Restraint: Oak Handling in 2021 Grange
Grange has always worn its American oak with pride—big, toasty, and unapologetically present. It’s part of the wine’s DNA, giving it structure, longevity, and that unmistakable Grange signature. But in the 2021 vintage, something subtle has shifted.
The oak is still there—but it doesn’t dominate. It supports rather than shouts. The tannins are finer, the integration more seamless, and the fruit is given more room to sing. Critics have noted a heightened sense of balance and poise, with some even comparing the wine’s finesse to that of classic European Syrah—bright acidity, silken mouthfeel, and gentle spice rather than char and toast.
Could this be the quiet influence of the La Chapelle collaboration? That project, after all, required Penfolds to work with French oak-aged Syrah from one of the Rhône’s most revered terroirs. It demanded a rethinking of structure, oak use, and expression. And while the 2021 Grange was likely well underway before the final blending of La Chapelle, it’s hard not to draw a line between the two. Both wines show a new level of restraint and polish, suggesting a broader evolution in Penfolds’ stylistic intent.
It’s still unmistakably Grange—but more refined, more elegant, and perhaps more worldly than ever before.