Penfolds
Penfolds is a winery and vineyard in South Australia and is owned by the Treasury Wine Estates Ltd..
History
The winery was founded in 1844 by Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold. It is thus one of Australia's oldest wineries and alongside Peter Lehmann's also one of the most important. Penfold studied at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London medicine. At the age of 33 he emigrated with his wife Mary and daughter Georgina to Australia, where he founded a winery in Magill east of Adelaide and planted the vines, which he had bought for that purpose before his emigration to France, in the vicinity of a stone country house, which he named after the home of his wife, Mary, the Grange.
As a physician Penfold believed in the medical effectiveness of wine. At the beginning he produced heavy wines as a tonic for his patients that resembled a sherry or port. As the demand for these wines increased, the estate was enlarged. After Penfold had died in 1870, his wife Mary took over the management of the estate. Mary Penfold was replaced in 1884 by her daughter Georgina and her husband Thomas Hyland. 1881 included the annual production of 500,000 liters already, the area under cultivation was the turn of the century 50 hectares. In 1921 the family business was converted into a company and the acreage increased by layers in the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale in South Australia and other locations in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.
During the Second World War, the production of wine was reduced and the increase of port and sherry. In the 1940s and 1950s Penfolds then began again to focus on the production of table wines and thus meet the changing drinking behavior. Attempts by the winemaker of Penfolds, Max Schubert, performed in the years 1945-1951, finally, to the production of the most famous and most valuable wine from Penfolds, or even anywhere in Australia - the Shiraz Grange Hermitage, which is simply called Grange since 1990.
In 1976 Penfolds was taken over by the brewery Tooth & Co. of New South Wales. 1982 was the estate in the possession of the Adelaide Steamship Co., in 1990 in the possession of South Australia Brewing over, which then itself became part of the Southcorp group. In 2005, the vineyards of the South Corp. came into the possession of Foster's group, which also includes the wineries Seppelt, Rosemount, Lindemans, Wolf Blass from Australia as well as the winery Beringer from California founded by two German brothers in 1876 include. 2011 Foster's split its wine business in the Treasury Wine Estates Ltd.. from.
Penfolds currently operates two wineries: the parent company in Magill near Adelaide and a second winery in Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley. The winery relates the grapes of more than 200 independent contract growers with a total acreage of 500 acres, the annual production is about 1.4 million bottles.
The varieties of Penfolds
Besides the famous Penfolds Grange produced a number of other high-quality red wines, like Bin 707, RWT ( Red Winemaking Trial), St. Henri or the Magill Estate. The Bin 389 is often referred to as " baby Grange " because it is stored in barrels that were previously used for the Grange. But even small amounts of white wines and liqueurs are produced. Max Schubert developed for the description of wines by a system of numbered barrels, so-called "bins ", where the wines are stored. The first of these wines was the Bin 2 of the year 1962.
Grange Hermitage and Grange
Max Schubert began in 1945, first experiments with Shiraz grapes. In 1951, finally, the first vintage was presented - this was not yet marketed. Was presented as the first commercial vintage of Grange Hermitage in 1952, he did not meet the general style and stood a few vintages before the corner. However, the taste was transformed, Max Schubert remained faithful to the character of the Grange. Since then, this wine is excellent with medals and honors and is about all vintages of time one of the most consistent quality wines in the world. So he called the well-known wine critic Hugh Johnson as the " only true Gran Cru the Southern Hemisphere ", the Wine Spectator magazine named the Grange 1990 vintage "the best red wine in the world" and mentioned the year 1955 as one of the twelve best wines of 20th century. Since the year 1962, the Grange won 126 gold, 76 silver and 42 bronze medals and 28 trophies and seven championships at international tastings. Likewise, he could two Jimmy Watson Trophies decide for themselves, which is surprising because of the extraordinary style of Grange.
The Grange is usually a blend of average 95 to 97 %, but at least 87 % Shiraz grapes of different layers and regions. In addition, about 3 to 5%, up to a maximum of 13 % Cabernet Sauvignon balance to the wine. Certain vintages (1951, 1952, 1963, 1999, 2000 and 2001) are vinified from 100% Shiraz and thus sorted. Through this variable blending the quality of the vintage is not dependent on the quality of a single layer or vine. Traditionally, the Grange begins its fermentation in stainless steel tanks. During fermentation the wine is racked into barrels of American oak for 18 months where he continues to develop. After this phase, the wine is bottled and aged for another three to four years in the bottle. Through this five -year process, the most recent published edition of the Grange is currently in the year 2006.
Until the 1989 vintage, the wine was marketed as Grange Hermitage, then simply as Grange - sometimes specifically as Bin 95 Grange Hermitage One of the first cohort from 1951, probably made only 20 pieces worldwide from the, scored at an auction in 2004 a record amount of more than 50,000 AUD ( about 30,000 euros ) - the highest ever recorded for an Australian red wine bid.
Awards
Some selected awards the wines of Penfolds:
- Grange, born in 1994 Weinwisser: 20/ 20 points
- WineSpectator: 96/100 points
- Weinwisser: 19/ 20 points
- WineSpectator 97/100 points
- Robert Parker 's Wine Advocate 93 Parker Points (PP ) / 100
- Weinwisser: 18/ 20 points
- WineSpectator 93/100 points
- Mondo 92/100 points
- WineSpectator 90/100 points
- Mondo 91/100 points