Jonathan Ray Jonathan Ray

Our dinner with Peter Gago

Peter Gago, the exuberant head winemaker at Penfolds, producer of Australia’s most celebrated and garlanded wine, Grange, was in fine form at our recent Spectator Winemaker Dinner held at the Marylebone Hotel.

Peter was generosity itself, too, bringing with him a spectacular array of Penfolds wines, including Bin 51 Eden Valley Riesling, Yattarna Chardonnay, Bin 389 Cabernet/Shiraz, RWT Shiraz, Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon (produced from the oldest Cabernet vines in the world, incidentally, and I bet you didn’t know that), St Henri Shiraz and the mighty Grange itself (the 2008 in fact, rated a 100 point wine by the noble Robert Parker). We finished with an extraordinary 30 year old tawny.

Every wine was an absolute belter and for those of us more familiar with the ubiquitous Rawson’s Retreat and Koonunga Hill from Penfolds (both currently around £7 in a supermarket or high street chain near you), it was something of an eye-opening evening.

In fact, if I have a quibble with Penfolds it’s the sheer size of their range and the madly confusing nomenclature and bin number system they use on their labels.

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