"Taking bets now on when the Grange RRP will hit a grand. This release of Penfolds Grange was sourced from a number of South Australian regions and saw, of course, 100% new American oak. This 2014 Grange includes 2% cabernet sauvignon. I won’t go into the details but the press release includes tasting notes and, appropriately enough, the tasting note provided includes its fair share of exclamation marks. This one was my favourite (in context): “Until the next sip!”

My daughter loves baking cakes and as a result I love crushing ants. One sniff and I was in my kitchen with my daughter. There you go. It’s archetypal Grange, smooth, svelte, aristocratic, bright and dense at once, the pride of South Australia and the entire Penfolds red wine line-up all rolled and synergised into one. I see soy and I see spice, I see vanilla and various things nice, but mostly I just see quality nipped and tucked, gathered and applied in such a way that it’s perfect. I didn’t spit it out and I don’t regret it. For a second I was a better man. I read recently that the Richmond football club, on winning the 2017 AFL grand final, went to Rockpool in Melbourne and drank Grange. In fact it was the tattooed-head-to-toe-bad-boy Dustin Martin who related this story. Bay Boy Dustin Martin drinks Grange. I thought of this as I put my glass down. The cliched elite are in for a treat. 2014 Grange will not let anyone down. Drink 2024-2044+"

96 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, October 2018. 

Deep, dense youthful red/purple colour. The bouquet is a riot of preserved plums, mocha, smoky toasty oak - less obvious than the Granges of yore - with hints of tar and graphite. The wine is full-bodied but it's not a blockbuster. It's dense and concentrated, but not overpowering. Indeed, the wine is superbly balanced and has even a touch of elegance. The tannins are certainly abundant, with a touch of traditional Grange firmness, but it's a very easy Grange to understand and enjoy. Less likely to intimidate! 2% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink to 2041.

98 points, Real Review, October 2018

First made in 1951 and released every year since, it’s a blend of six premium South Australian regions led by the Barossa. The bouquet evokes mocha, preserved plum, smoky toasty oak, tar and graphite. Very concentrated, full-bodied and superbly balanced, this Grange is already remarkably accessible. Best 2021-2048+ 

98 points, Real Review, October 2018

"An erratic season with heat spikes and rain events, saved by cooler conditions from mid-autumn, 2014 is no blockbuster Grange, but unashamedly celebrates a more understated, spicy and structured style. Black cherry and satsuma plum fruit is supported masterfully by a firm, fine chassis of long-enduring tannins. This is no inky, brooding Grange, but rather a vintage that celebrates space and refinement. It’s none the less for it and lacks nothing in consummate line and unrelenting persistence. It won’t make headlines but it will make for a great drink, and for that, I admire it greatly. Drink 2034-2044."

97 points, Tyson Stelzer, October 2018. 

Fruit from Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Wrattonbully, Coonawarra, Clare Valley, Magill Estate. 98% Shiraz, 2% Cabernet Sauvignon. (2011 was the last vintage to be without Cabernet Sauvignon.) This is the first ever Grange to have Wrattonbully fruit – 8%. They’re celebrating. 20 months in new American oak hogsheads. Good winter rainfall. There were heat spikes through summer, with temperatures reaching 43 ºC on 2 February. By mid-autumn, the weather had settled down to generally cooler conditions, optimal for slow ripening. TA 6.7 g/l, pH 3.6. Smoky barbecue notes. Great grip and intensity and drama. Round and very exciting. Throbs forever. Great top note of dried herbs. Sweetness isn’t the dominant character. Different! Peter Gago is very proud of how distinctive this is and says you can maybe compare it with 2004. Very vibrant.14.5% Drink 2020-2050.

18.5 points, Jancis Robinson MW, October 2018.

"Undeniably Grange in its approach from start to finish, a powerful band of 98 per cent shiraz and 2 per cent cabernet from six SA regions that has spent 20 months in 100 per cent new American oak hogshead barrels. It’s all rich, black fruit flesh seasoned with savoury dark spices and notes of cut down olive bushes and sage in the flavour zone. It’s solid gold Grange in body as well as soul, yet chamfered and measured, even subtly minerally but with no hard edges. It’s a waiting game now like always — drink now in an hour of power or for a special celebration in 10-25 years."

98 points, Tony Love, October 2018.

Rich, concentrated and intense, the 2014 Grange delivers exactly what we've come to expect from this Penfolds icon wine. It's full-bodied, velvety in feel and loaded with plummy fruit, framed in vanilla and cedar. Dense, powerful and tannic, it should prove to be long-lived, even by Grange standards. Gago doesn't rate the vintage overall that highly, but he says the selection this year for Grange was a bit more stringent and that production levels were just average. There are still over 1,000 cases for the United States. Drink 2025-2050.

98 points, Wine Advocate, October 2018. 

"Deep colour. Beautiful crushed blackberry, mulberry aromas with roasted chestnut, marzipan, mocha oak and liquorice, crème de caramel nuances. Richly flavoured velvety textured wine with dense blackberry, mulberry, dark plum fruits, fine plentiful chocolaty but vigorous tannins, abundant roasted chestnut, mocha, nougat oak. Finishes chocolaty firm with bittersweet notes, and sustained mineral length. Impressively balanced wine with lovely density, energy and meaty complexity. A classic example of exceptional multi-vineyard sourcing including Wrattonbully for the very first time. Penfolds winemaking philosophy is the ascendant star in this wine. While in the shadow of three successive great years, this “sleeper” Grange vintage has the potential to surprise. 97 points - 14.5% 2025-2060."

97 points, Andrew Caillard MW, October 2018.

Deep crimson. Fresh elemental elderberry, blackberry sage aniseed aromas roasted chestnut, vanilla oak and herb garden notes. Densely packed wine with concentrated blackberry cassis, dark cherry fruits, fine plentiful chalky grainy firm tannins, superb mocha vanilla oak complexity and fine long fresh integrated but crunchy acidity. Wonderful and substantial wine with superb velvety finish. Complete freak of a wine. 98% Shiraz 2% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink 2035-2070, 14.5% alc

100 points, The Vintage Journal

The 2014 Grange is a blend of 98% Shiraz and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from Barossa Vale, McLaren Vale, Wrattonbully, Coonawarra, Clare Valley and Magill Estate. Harvest was variable between the regions, with heat spikes and St Valentine’s Day rain contributing to a long, slow ripening, or, in arcane Peter Gago-speak: ‘a timely pre-harvest vintage mnemonic’. It's matured for 20 months in new American oak hogsheads, and the perfumes are quite lovely, already pronounced and distinctly Grange, with subtle but intense liquorice, the vanilla spice of American oak, blackberry and damson fruits, and underlying gamey notes. There’s a silky quality to the texture on the palate, showing depth, balance and complexity with concentrated blackberry and a hint of dark chocolate. As the tannins appear to be softer, juicier and more approachable than previous, more ‘classic’ Granges at this stage, the voluptuousness presages well for excellent medium-to-long-term drinking, starting in the next couple of years. It will star with slow-cooked pork belly or boeuf en daube.

100 points, Decanter (September 2018)