Penfolds Grange 2013 Aevum Limited Edition Decanter

When Lisa Perrotti-Brown awarded the 2013 Grange a perfect 100 points for Wine Advocate, she was scoring a wine built on a deliberate act of winemaking transgression: Max Schubert's original decision to complete fermentation inside new American oak hogsheads — a technique borrowed from Bordeaux but executed in a vessel slightly larger than a barrique, producing a textural integration no post-fermentation racking can replicate. That founding logic remains unchanged in 2013.

The fruit draws primarily from Barossa Valley (typically 77–82% of the blend), where ancient, deep alluvial and sandy loam soils — phylloxera-free, ungrafted — force vines to root deep for water, concentrating flavour into small, thick-skinned berries. McLaren Vale, Coonawarra, and Clare Valley fill the remaining parcels, each selected by Chief Winemaker Peter Gago for fruit quality over geographic consistency — the deliberate anti-terroir philosophy that defines the house.

The blend runs ~93–98% Shiraz with up to 7% Cabernet Sauvignon, fermented in small open-top stainless steel tanks before barrel completion, then aged 18–20 months in 100% new American oak hogsheads, followed by extended bottle maturation under natural cork at 14.5% ABV. The Aevum decanter format is a limited-release presentation of the same wine, not a separate cuvée.

The 2013 is described as concentrated and precise — a structured, cellar-demanding expression drinking well from now through the 2040s and beyond.