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No written review provided. | 93 W&SWell done. Aromas of black truffles and ripe fruit introducing a full-bodied wine with lots of fruit and velvety tannins. A mouthful. Amazing for the vintage in the Médoc. Best after 2006. 18,330 cases made.Wine Spectator | 91 WS

No written review provided. | 92 W&SThe 1998 La Dominique replicates the fine performance it showed from magnum two weeks earlier. The bouquet offers blackberry, raspberry coulis, sage and truffle on the nose, a touch of mint developing with time. The palate is medium-bodied with fine grain tannins, still fresh and cohesive with black fruit, tobacco, a touch of dark chocolate with a finish you might easily mistake for a Pomerol. There is just a note of dryness and linearity on the finish, at least in the bottle, but larger formats should still give lots of pleasure. Tasted at the vertical tasting at La Dominique.Vinous Media | 91 VMThe 1998 is a soft, fat, voluptuously-textured, opulent effort with a dense ruby/purple color, and gorgeous aromas of olives, black cherry jam, blackberries, chocolate, and espresso. This full-bodied wine is hedonistic, flashy, and nearly decadent in its display of luxurious fruit, high glycerin, and spice. Anticipated maturity: now-2015.Robert Parker | 90 RPSolid, with complex aromas of blackberry, violet and berry. Medium- to full-bodied, with silky tannins and a black olive and cherry aftertaste. Very good indeed. Best after 2005. 4,580 cases made.Wine Spectator | 90 WSThe 1998 Chateau La Dominique is a very good wine and one that strikes me as still straddling the line between the modernist and traditionalist camp for this vintage. It is not as deeply red fruity or complex as the beautiful wines made here in the 1982 and 1986 vintages, but neither is it as overtly powerful as the 1989 or more recent vintages. The bouquet is deep and complex, wafting from the glass in a fine blend of black cherries, menthol, cigar wrapper, dark soil tones, nutty new oak and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and quite suave on the attack, with a good core of ripe fruit, still some firm tannins and good length and grip on the complex and well-balanced finish. The perception of tannins on the backend here builds with air, so if one is inclined to drink the wine now, I would not leave it overly long in decanter prior to serving. It is a very good vintage for La Dominique. (Drink between 2022 - 2055)John Gilman | 90 JG

A wine that flirts with perfection, and should rival the 1986 as one of the legendary Granges produced, the 1998 has one of the highest alcohol contents (nearly 15%) as well as one of the highest percentages of Shiraz in the blend (97%). Its stunning purple color is accompanied by exceptionally sweet aromas of blackberry liqueur intermixed with barbecue spices, an endearing, smoky earthiness, pepper, roasted meats, and coffee. Huge, massive, unctuously textured, and extraordinarily youthful, this impressive wine is a candidate for perfection. It should continue to evolve over the next three decades.Grange, Penfolds’ flagship wine, is, by many accounts, the most renowned and world-famous wine produced in Australia, and these six vintages from my cellar all acquitted themselves well. These wines are almost always Shiraz, but many vintages include less than 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and there are cross-appellations blends from vineyards in the Barossa and McLaren Vale.Robert Parker | 98+ RPVery deep red-ruby. Smoky, deeply concentrated fruit bomb of a nose: blackberry, dark plum, cassis; creamy vanilla and lightly toasty coconutty oak; and ethereal background notes of white pepper, smoked meats, musky spices, tar and licorice. Profoundly concentrated but velvety-smooth and seamless; impressively muscular and thickly coated with oak, and bound by drying, astringent tannins. Without question the most concentrated Grange of all time, utterly steeped in blackberry flavors; a real show pony. It’s also the most alcoholic Grange ever made, and at a declared 14.5% does taste warm and spirity - the first Grange to do so. It also ventures to some degree into the realm of currant and prune. No doubt a brilliant wine, but only time will tell if, with its elevated alcohol and its superripe flavors, this 1998 version ranks with the very best Grange vintages.Vinous Media | 97 VMA wine of surprising subtlety for the vintage, playing its ripe cherry, red plum and herb flavors against firm tannins that have a bit of grit to them. But those lively cherry and raspberry flavors burst through, and there’s a nice hint of green herbs lingering around the finish, which doesn’t subside easily.--Australian reds blind retrospective. 9,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 97 WS