You might expect a vintage of this age to look more evolved than this, particularly one that is not recognised as a great Grange vintage, and yet it is vibrant and ready for action. 1989 was a very hot year, fully ripe, and it retains an edge of rubber and smoke reduction on the opening notes, needs a good carafe to really open up (which is different from having to carafe for sediment). Once it does, you get straight to cigar box, cinders, soot, blueberries, blackcurrant, raspberry puree, still stunning, with the spice of a hot year. Changed from Grange Hermitage in this year (in the following 1990 vintage, the cork says Grange Hermitage, while the label just says Grange). Peter Gago arrived in this vintage, at a time when the team was still working in a traditional manner, with a continous press used for extraction - a rougher method than today, and yet this is still firing on all cylinders, and is just a fabulous wine.

Amazingly ripe and lush, this bubbles with vibrant fruit like a mouthful of cassis syrup, concentrated, elegant and remarkably silky in texture. Blackberry, currant and vanilla flavors ooze over palate, making for a thoroughly hedonistic drink. Wonderful now or wait until it calms down, perhaps by 2003 or 2005.--Penfolds Grange vertical. – HS

A very hedonistic, almost decadent style of Grange, this blend of 91% Shiraz and 9% Cabernet Sauvignon from three grape sources - Kalimna in the Barossa, Penfolds' other sources in the Barossa, and McLaren Vale - is a gorgeously opulent, almost Pomerol-like Grange with an over-ripe characteristic to the fruit. Cherry liqueur intermixed with cranberry and cassis presented in a seductive, full-bodied, very soft, forward style is truly not the classic Grange in the sense of having huge structure and massive concentration, but this wine is loaded, very corpulent, and fleshy. The wine is going to last for up to two decades, but it will be uncommonly succulent and delicious to drink young, as it was several months ago. Among the young vintages of Grange, this is perhaps the most flattering wine that they have produced over the last 20 years, at least for such a relatively young wine. Anticipated maturity: now-2018. - Robert Parker

A warm year has resulted in a typically full-weighted wine, albeit, one that is now at, or even past its apex of maturity. Avuncular aromas of cinder-box, tamarind, clove and varnished leather, with a wisp of menthol and muscle rub. A core of sweet curranty fruit lingers. There is plenty of charm here and with that, imminent appeal for those picking up a bottle in the secondary market. Drink now. - Ned Goodwin MW