La Chapelle / Grange —+— Grange / La Chapelle
The historic launch of a new collaboration between Northern & Southern Hemisphere Icons
9th February 2025 – La Monnaie de Paris
Jean-Guillaume Prats interviews Caroline Frey & Peter Gago
Tectonic plates and stellar palates collided in the most exciting wine joint venture of my wine lifetime when winemaker Peter Gago’s Penfolds married his elite Shiraz from iconic Aussie red wine Grange with The Frey family’s legendary Syrah from the monumental Hermitage La Chapelle, in the northern Rhône. A 50/50 blend has been assembled, and it pleases me more than I can say to announce that it is a resounding success. Peter Gago and Caroline Frey are some of the world’s most inspirational and visionary wine folk. With Peter’s restless imagination and Caroline’s unceasing work ethic, perhaps these two extraordinary wine companies were destined to be joined one day, not least because they share an unquenchable passion for the Syrah/Shiraz variety. Yet, it would be too easy to pass this off as a foolish folly or an attention-seeking stunt. Far from it. This project has been plotted with forensic care and attention, and the results are astounding. Three wines have been made as I write this piece, and I have tasted two of them – the 2021 and the 2022.
The Menu & Wines
What I find compelling about these two bottled wines is that the weld between the two vehicles is invisible. Neither wine seeks to dominate, and neither wine seeks to be a ‘starter’ or ‘finisher’ on the palate. Instead, these wines are woven from the finest silk and perfectly intertwined with precisely equal amounts of warp and weft, resulting in a gossamer-smooth creation. While Penfolds Grange sports a mighty 100% new oak and La Chapelle only 20% new carpentry, it is remarkable how much synergy and harmony this wine shows on the nose and palate. Grange’s musculature is tempered by La Chapelle’s profound minerality and silkiness, and the finished wine is gloriously aromatic, plush and infinitely layered. None of the elements overlap, and none of the flavours compete, making the overall experience overwhelmingly civilised and genteel.
This dream collaboration has made it appear like this coming together of flavours was an inevitability as opposed to a frivolity, and the perfume and palate of this tremendous red wine bear this out. It is, in truth, a celebration of this noble grape variety like no other. As always, it is easier to find one accurate French word to describe a wine, where many English words would usually have to be deployed, and, on this occasion, I would plump for génial.
Caroline Frey, Paz Levinson, Peter Gago, MJ
2021 La Chapelle / Grange exhibits a threateningly dark core of fruit that opens on command to reveal stunningly vibrant fruit tones, from purples, garnets, and carmines to deeper sanguineous notes that conspire to create a thrilling vortex of Syrah’s and Shiraz’s finest attributes. The tenderness of La Chapelle and the fruit focus of Grange seem heaven-sent, resulting in a surprisingly forward and graceful amalgam of grandeur and breeding. 19/20 (Drink 2030 – 2040)
