Penfolds Rare Tawnies: A masterclass in ageing

During the first half of the 20th century, fortified wines dominated Australian wine production. They accounted for 86% of total global sales in 1950, versus just 2% of global sales today.

Production may now be tiny but, drawing on precious heritage stock, the faithful few who still make fortifieds can produce wines of unrivalled intensity and complexity.

Among their number is Penfolds. The full-bodied rancio house style of its Rare Tawny fortified wines reflects the older-than-average legal minimum age (see box below) of the blending material within Penfolds’ solera system.

Notes and scores for four old and rare tawnies below

A Tawny tradition

When Dr Christopher Penfold and his wife Mary Penfold founded the eponymous brand in 1844, they embraced fortified winemaking. Mary, a self-taught master blender, evidently had a fine touch.

Penfolds won a gold medal at the 1889 Paris Exhibition for a ‘Tawny Port’. By the end of World War I, the company was Australia’s leading producer of ‘Port’ and ‘Sherry’.*

During this period, Alf Vesey (who had worked under Mary) set aside the 1915 vintage, which is believed to have been the foundation of Penfolds’ first cask of Grandfather Rare Tawny some 50 years later.

According to Penfolds’ current fortified winemaker Matt Woo, this private barrel was originally reserved for family, friends and special guests. That is until, in 1965, Penfolds launched its first commercial release of Grandfather Rare Tawny, which has a minimum average blended age of 20 years.

Heritage stock

The Penfolds tawny family has since grown and is based on fruit from the warm, dry climes of the Barossa Valley, as well as the Riverland for younger tawnies.

Great Grandfather Rare Tawny (which has a minimum average blended age of 30 years) was added to the portfolio in 1994.

Two decades later, the premium range was topped and tailed with the addition of Penfolds’ flagship 50 Year Old Rare Tawny and Father Grand Tawny (which has a minimum average blended age of 10 years).

Together with James Godfrey, Penfolds’ veteran fortified winemaker, Woo helped to create the 50 Year Old Rare Tawny.

He recalls: ‘We had very old rare wines tucked away and were wondering what to do with them. We could have bottled them as single-vintage colheitas, but then they would be gone forever. Instead we engineered a solera system to create a blend with an average age of 50 years.’

Solera ageing

‘Having done all the sums, checking the numbers many times,’ says Woo, they devised a solera (fractional blending) system. This allows Penfolds to draw off enough wine to fill 330 (hand-blown) bottles at a time, while maintaining a minimum average blended age of 50 years.

Thrillingly, the solera included a 2.5-litre glass flagon of the 1915 tawny alongside the 1940 and 1945 vintages, the first two commercial releases of Grandfather (1965 and 1969) and the first Great Grandfather release from 1994.

The use of a solera system is a key point of difference between the three Penfolds Rare Tawnies and tawny Ports from Portugal. The latter – like the Penfolds Father Grand Tawny – rely exclusively on master blenders to create blends from individually matured barrels.

The base wines for Father Grand Tawny are matured as individual vintage and varietal components in seasoned oak hogsheads, before blending.

Base wines for Grandfather Rare Tawny are matured separately for the first 14 years. After that, a barrel selection is blended and becomes the topping wine for the first stage of the ‘Grandfather solera’. Composed of six progressively older stages, the final sixth stage produces a tawny for bottling with a minimum average blended age of 20 years.

Great Grandfather Rare Tawny is drawn from stage six of the ‘Grandfather solera’ and selected exceptional batches of maturing Grandfather Tawny. These components are further aged, then blended and introduced into the ‘Great Grandfather Solera’ for bottling with a minimum average blended age of 30 years.

Uniquely Australian

Varietal composition and maturation in much warmer, drier conditions also differentiates Penfolds’ tawnies from tawny Port.

‘The backbone is Shiraz, for richness, weight, depth of flavour and full-bodied characters. Mataro (aka Mourvèdre) gives savouriness and, because it ages more rapidly, carries lovely wood-aged rancio characters,’ explains Woo.

Grenache, another key player, brings ‘aromatics, juiciness and wonderful brightness.’ Warm-climate (Barossa or Riverland) Cabernet Sauvignon is rich and plummy, not herbaceous, he emphasises.

Bit players include Portugal’s Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Cão and traditional varieties, including the white grape Muscadelle which, says Woo, ‘was used as a natural acid adjuster.’

He emphasises that, contrary to popular belief, they don’t pick super-raisined grapes. Instead they ‘let the tawny maturation process give those wonderful characters.’

The goal ‘is a brighter fruit spectrum and not vast amounts of tannin; we’re looking for balance,’ says Woo. Once the fruit is in barrel, solera barrels are worked annually.

‘A little bit of air movement just keeps them alive. And looking after your barrels is important, because you don’t want that stale oak coming through,’ explains Woo.

Inside the barrel is where the magic happens. The Barossa’s warm, dry climate drives the rate of evaporation, accelerating concentration and maturation, as does maturing the tawnies in small seasoned 300-litre barrels (filled to 280 litres) under a corrugated metal roof. It is torrid in summer when the top stack of solera barrels can reach 55℃; in winter, the temperature can plummet to less than 8℃.

Because this evaporation, the so-called ‘angel’s share,’ also increases alcohol, sugars and acidity, ‘the wines grow into themselves a little bit more with time in barrel,’ says Woo. ‘There are a lot of very happy angels,’ he quips, reflecting on the process that underwrites Penfolds’ signature rancio flavours and smooth texture.

Heavenly spirit

Rancio characters typically develop after a decade in barrel. With an average minimum age of 10 years, Father Grand’s elegant charm lies in its relatively plush, fleshier palate.

As one might expect, Penfolds’ intensely concentrated Rare Tawnies are darker and richer, with higher residual sugar (around 220g/l versus Father Grand’s 160g/l).

They are satisfying without being heavy, and finish savoury and long. This is attributable to their markedly nutty, woody rancio flavours and impressive backbone of acidity and spirit.

For Woo, the potent yet beautifully integrated, unaged spirit is another hallmark of the Penfolds house style.

‘We’re looking for a bit more purity than Port, with wonderful leather and aniseed flavours and a bit of creaminess and richness to help marry into the fruit right from start,’ he says.

Like tawny Port, Penfolds’ tawnies are made to drink on release. After all, Penfolds has done the ageing for you and the angels have already taken their share.

This is particularly judicious in the case of Penfolds 50 Year Old Rare Tawny which, although drawing on the oldest blending material, is exquisitely balanced for such a charismatic, intense fortified wine.

Australian fortified wine classification system

Australian tawny* – less than 5 years in age

Classic tawny – 5-10 years in age

Grand tawny – 10-15 years in age

Rare tawny – 15+ years in age

*Since 2011, Australian fortifieds cannot be labelled ‘Sherry’ or ‘Port’; tawny styles are simply badged ‘Tawny.’

Penfolds Rare Tawny wines: tasting notes

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