Penfolds Grange 2003

The 2003 vintage was initially warm and dry, becoming milder later in the season, meaning the fruit was picked earlier. The resulting wine is described as being at the spicier end of the Grange spectrum.
 
Winemaker Peter Gago describes this wine as: Deep red with a captivating, complex, complete nose. Unravelling aromatics unfurl with air – blue fruit notes entwined with barrel ferment and maturation elements; nothing singular, always in tandem. Sweet soy, cola and quince paste high notes escape from an ethereal layer (aniseed, fennel and fresh treacle ginger pudding) wafting above. On the palate there’s dark and liqueur chocolate, laced with Moroccan spices. An underlying tar-graphite blackness is lifted by derived fruit/quince pie flavours – a few years earlier they may have been more brashly varietal and elemental. Pronounced tannins sweep across the palate, although they are certainly part of the wine, never obtrusive.