Is the new Penfolds Grange worth £600? We rate it plus 23 more from the 2025 Collection

Seven decades after the inaugural 1951 Grange, the 2021 vintage of Penfolds’ renowned multi-region South Australian Shiraz looks set to be one of the greats.

Priced at £600 (AU$1,000 / €700), it was the highlight of the 2025 Collection, presented to critics in London last month by Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago.

With a history as long and rich as Penfolds (it celebrated its 180th birthday last year) and with an ever-increasing number of wines in its international portfolio (close to 40), there’s a high chance of one or more anniversaries coinciding with each vintage.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of the new Grange release and 23 other wines in the 2025 Penfolds Collection

Marking milestones

This year, in addition to Grange marking 70 years since the inaugural 1951 vintage, Penfolds’ home vineyard in Adelaide – first planted 181 years ago – sees the 40th anniversary of its Magill Estate Shiraz with the 2023 vintage.

And, not to be outdone, the 2024 Bin A Adelaide Hills Reserve Chardonnay celebrates its 30-year milestone. Next year, Penfolds’ top-tier Chardonnay Yattarna (Bin 144) will likewise clock up its three-decade anniversary.

This follows the February launch of Grange La Chapelle, a partnership between Gago and Caroline Frey, his counterpart at Domaine La Chapelle, in France’s Rhône Valley.

The inaugural 2021 vintage is an equal blend of this latest release of Grange and Syrah from the hill of Hermitage. The 2022 and 2023 vintages are in bottle and the French half of the 2024 is about to be sent back to Australia for blending.

This year’s collection also welcomed a new French Winemaking Trial wine, the 2022 FWT 543. It’s a Gallic take on the quintessential Australian blend, combining Bordeaux Cabernet and Syrah from the south of France.

‘Some of our most revered wines started life as experiments – including Grange,’ Gago reminded critics in London. ‘When we get everything right, all our ducks in a row, hopefully they earn their stripes and upgrade to Bin status.’ (Grange has officially been Bin 95 since 1964.)

And a big part of getting it right for FWT 543, reveals Gago, is ultimately sourcing the Syrah from the northern Rhône. ‘But we crawl before we walk.’

Bin 169 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, only made in exceptional vintages, is a notable omission from this year’s collection: ‘Coonawarra in 2023 had a bit of a rough patch for Cabernet,’ notes Gago.

Consequently Bin 707, the top-tier multi-region Cabernet, has no Coonawarra fruit, though some did make it into its little brother Bin 407.

Highlights of the 2025 Penfolds Collection

The 2021 vintage is roundly considered exceptional in South Australia (Brian Croser of Tapanappa in the Adelaide Hills, a veteran of 56 vintages, says it’s one of the best of his career), giving fresh, concentrated, ageworthy wines.

So it’s no surprise the new-release Grange is a corker, up there with 2018, 2010 and 1990.

If you are a collector, investor or Aussie icon hunter, you’ll want this: expressive and exotic, supple yet generous, with statuesque tannins. And the hardest thing won’t be the price tag (£600/€700) but how to ignore its siren call from the cellar for the next three decades.

Much of this year’s collection is from the very wet, cold and late 2023 vintage, which challenged growers with disease pressures and low yields.

But Penfolds prides itself on its long-term relationships with grower families (some supplying fruit for more than 100 years), as well as its organoleptic blind tastings to classify parcels by quality and then determine blends.

Grange’s white wine counterpart, Yattarna (£135/€155), sourced from marginal cool-climate regions, is pristine and focused in 2023, with bright fruit and a structure to ensure it ages well over the next 20 years.

‘Baby Grange’ Bin 389 Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz (£70/€80) is a strong buy from 2023, while the Bin 28 South Australian Shiraz (£30/€35) from the 2024 vintage really punches above its weight both in quality and value.

Looking at Penfolds’ international portfolio, the 2022 ‘Wine of the World’ Bin 149 Cabernet Sauvignon (£60/€70) is exceptional, taking its name from the 14.9% of South Australian fruit that joined the Napa Valley component in its inaugural 2018 vintage.

From Bordeaux, the 2022 FWT 585 Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot-Petit Verdot (£65/€75) is improving year on year, and Gago says is close to being upgraded to Bin status.

When you can buy them

This year’s Penfolds Collection comprises 24 wines, all of which Decanter has tasted and rated.

St Henri 2022, along with Grange 2021, Yattarna 2023, Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 and RWT Bin 798 Barossa Valley Shiraz 2023 will be released on Bordeaux’s La Place on 8 September.

The 19 other wines in the 2025 Penfolds Collection will be released in Australia on 7 August and available globally from 20 September.

Penfolds Collection 2025: Tasting notes and scores of 24 wines

Tina Gellie tasted 19 of the 24 Penfolds Collection 2025 wines in June as well as the 2025 Bin 51 Riesling and 2023 Magill Estate Shiraz in August. David Sly tasted the 2021 Bin 98 Quantum and 2023 CWT Cabernet Sauvignon-Marselan in Adelaide in August and Georgie Hindle tasted the 2022 St Henri Shiraz in Bordeaux in July.

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