Now that Grange and Yattarna are out, the rush is on. Even though Grange tends to be beyond the reach of most of us, it’s a true vintage for the Grange drinker. Now that the heat has gone out of Grange prices, let’s focus for a change on how much pleasure we’ll get from drinking it, not just hoarding it to make a financial killing. For the 1994 wine is a very drinkable Grange. Although John Duval has a soft spot for the 1991 vintage, I think the new wine is the best since the sumptuous 1990 release. While it may lack the exceptional depth and power of the 1990 wine, it does offer all the sumptuous richness and flavour of a great Grange. Distinctively peppery and spicy, it packs a mean punch of dark berry and plum fruit and the creamy lashings of new American oak that any Grange drinker would warm to. I point the wine at 19.3 and suggest opening it anytime from 2006-2014+. I’ve always preferred the 1996 Yattarna to the 1995, which was unable to live up to the hype that surrounded it. Although I still find it just too clean and clinical, the 1996 release is a step up in length, sophistication and refinement. Sourced from 90% Adelaide Hills fruit, with the remaining 10% from Tumbarumba in NSW, it’s a succulent, supple wine whose fresh stonefruit and pear fruit is matched with lightly toasty and creamy vanilla barrel ferment oak. It sports rather obvious malolactic influences and finishes chalky with clean acids. I rate it at 18.6 and suggest opening from 2001-2004. Potential counterfeiters of Grange and Yattarna will now have to reproduce the laser-etched identification which now appears between the label and shoulder of each bottle plus new pressure-sensitive labels.
