Penfolds Grange La Chapelle attracts critics
Huon Hooke in Opinions Become a member to view this article
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Caroline Frey and Peter Gago with the new Grange La Chapelle blend. Penfolds
The AUD $3,500 Grange/La Chapelle blend launched by Penfolds and Paul Jaboulet Aîné at Wine Paris in mid-February has set off plenty of cynical comments.
“When is someone going to call this nonsense out?” asked a friend to his emailing list, citing the parable of the Emperor’s New Clothes.
The wine is a 50/50 blend of Jaboulet’s famous La Chapelle Hermitage and Penfolds Grange from the 2021 vintage.This is “… a term coined to express a situation where people allow themselves to be tricked, or to join with others, into becoming mutually deluded because they are afraid to admit their lack of knowledge or incapacity to understand a trendy idea …”
Several colleagues have expressed similar disgust.
“The ‘luxury good’ wankery is super-sized here…”
If you’ve been in Siberia bear hunting you might have missed the news flash. The wine is a 50/50 blend of Jaboulet’s famous La Chapelle Hermitage and Penfolds Grange from the 2021 vintage (outstanding in South Australia but difficult in the Northern Rhône).
The wine was debuted jointly by Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago—no stranger to luxury-priced ‘special’ wines—and Caroline Frey, winemaker at Jaboulet and a member of the family that owns the company nowadays.
From the press release I quote Caroline Frey, who said:
“No-one in the world has ever blended two such legendary terroirs. It’s like Picasso and Dalí painting on the same canvas – an idea so extraordinary it almost feels too incredible to be real.”
And Peter Gago said:
“Truly, a blend waiting to happen. Emotionally, a wine beguilingly alluring. Ultimately, harmony and classicism redefined.”
Even by Gago’s standards, that is prose as purple as the wine.
Some have rightly pointed out that the wine has nothing to do with terroir. Grange is a blend of vineyards and regions in South Australia—the 2021 being Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and Clare. Caroline Frey’s mention of the ‘t’ word could be referring to the terroir of South Australia, if such a thing exists, but Grange has never been a terroir wine. To put Grange and La Chapelle together would appear to obliterate any idea of terroir from either side. (And I imagine the Grange component would dominate the blend.)
It’s nothing to do with terroir, but that is alright. Not every wine has to pretend to have this elusive quality.
Penfolds comes up with eye-opening new wines every year, some of them unashamedly aimed fair and square at the high-rolling wine wanker market. Remember the Ampoule?
The Ampoule was a limited edition (12 were made) crystal vessel filled with Penfolds Kalimna Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, which came in a jarrah box and was priced at AUD $168,000. Wine-searcher is now showing a price of AUD $258,000!
Last year the big noise was the 2021 Bin 180 Cabernet Shiraz (AUD $1,180) which celebrated the company’s 180th anniversary. The year before there was a bevy of Dourthe collaborations from Bordeaux, Californian wines and US/Australia blends and more Thiénot Champagnes. In 2022, the Yattarna V Chardonnay and the first French-Australian blends. In 2021, the 2018 Superblends 802-A and 802-B, both AUD $900. In 2020, the 2016 Bin 111A Cabernet Shiraz, and the first of the Champagne Thiénot collaboration wines. Some time before that, the Penfolds G3 (1,200 bottles at AUD $3,000 each), G4 (2,500 bottles at AUD $3,500 each) and G5 (2,200 bottles at AUD $3,500 each), all blends of several Grange vintages, and all great wines, irrespective of your attitude to the concept.
I’d never buy it, like I’ll never buy a Rolls Royce, but I’m not offended by its existence either.Now the world is Gago’s oyster.
Penfolds has made no secret of its intention to be a player in the global luxury goods business. The release of eye-catching new wines every year is doubtless part of the plan to seize the initiative, hog the spotlight, own the narrative.
I’m quite excited and would be keen to taste the ‘La Grange’ blend. I expect it will be a very smart drop. A billionaires’ plaything, designed in part to make pots of money for Penfolds, to be sure, but it’s also about quality wine and looking for ways to expand the horizon.
I’d never buy it, like I’ll never buy a Rolls Royce, but I’m not offended by its existence either.
I have no problem with it and for those who would like to splurge out, go for it, it is their cash. Critics need to get over themselves as they are not as perfect as they would like to think.
In terms of wine, La Chapelle has not performed well in the last couple of decades and is no longer a leading maker. So, from a blending point of view, I do not see it as a marriage made in heaven. A La La / Grange blend would be an interesting one to try.
The Frey family bought Chateau La Lagune in 1999 and Paul Jaboulet in 2006, both with Caroline in charge. A star winemaker, she was made a Chevalier of the National Order of Merit in 2017 for services to winemaking. After some pretty dire years under previous ownership, the Jaboulet wines are well and truly back in form, according to all reports. Interesting to note that Caroline Frey also makes a 50/50 Rhone shiraz/Bordeaux cabernet sauvignon blend named Evidence par Caroline. I’d love to try that, too.
You have to smile at the audacity of Penfolds. I have to remind myself that recognition of Penfolds as one of the great global wine brands also brands Australian wine as sitting among the world’s best. It is hard to put a price on the value of international recognition. I know I will never taste these wines but I remain grateful that in my lifetime I have tasted a few vintages of Grange and each one was a joy to behold.
Yes, it’s sobering to imagine a world without Grange. Australia’s international fame for wine would be diminished.