The Rewards of Patience
“We must not be afraid to put into effect the strength of our own convictions...”
This is a book for true wine collectors - and tinkerers.
Updated and re-published every 5 years, Caillard’s reference guide details all of the luxury wines of Australia’s Penfolds winery. Very helpful for keeping all of your Blocks and Bins straight across the vintages, certainly. But I love the history embedded, and the account of establishing the Australian First Growth of Penfolds Grange. The first vintage in 1951 (in fact the first several vintages) were not at all commercial owing to their unique style and experimentation of the visionary winemaker Max Schubert. For wine-drinkers today, selecting wine based on the best fruit (vs single vineyard, estate wines) doesn’t feel all that revolutionary, but at the time, it must have seemed like quite the experiment, on top of the Shiraz varietal in American oak. As we’re building our own everyday projects, and doing new things, it’s a helpful reminder that trial and error AND persistence sometimes pay off. (The latest release was priced at £4,680 a case).
To life! -Emily