Iconic South Australian winemaker Penfolds has announced the release of g5 – the final expression in the g series trio of wines.
g5 is a blend of five Penfolds Grange vintages: 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018. The bottling follows the successful launches of g3 in 2017, and g4 in 2020.
For drinkers, this is a first chance to taste wine from the 2018 Grange, which will be released in August 2022.
Penfolds Chief Winemaker, Peter Gago, said: “Many collectors have queried why the landmark 2010 Grange was not included in g3 or g4.”
He continues: “And provocatively, how could we not include the yet-to-be-released 2018 Grange?
“Each of the five vintages sensitively brings their own personality and contribution to the blend.”
The wine has been released to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Grange, Penfolds flagship bottling, which has enjoyed continued success since its first experimental release in 1951.
Blending has a long history at Penfolds, with the winemaker pointing to the blending of Penfolds Tawny wines in the 19th century, stating: “A natural progression was to apply this venerated technique to create a new Penfolds red style, which now falls under the ‘g’ series tier.”
The first g series wine, Penfolds g3, was released in 2017, made from a blend of 2008, 2012 and 2014 vintages. g4 followed a couple of years later, and used 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2016 vintages. The newly released g5 is described as an “evolution of the original concept”, with the wine’s number corresponding to quantity of vintages it contains.
A highly limited release, only 2,200 bottles of Penfolds g5 are available worldwide. The wine is priced at a RRP of $3500, and www.penfolds.com opened for expressions of interest on Monday 1 November.