Medium brick colored, the 1971 Grange opens with touches of aldehyde / bottle-stink to begin over a core of fruit cake, leather, potpourri, game and sandalwood. With an elegant light to medium-body, the palate blossoms into incredible spice box, anise and mincemeat notes - wonderful multi-layered flavors – supported by a good backbone of remaining fine-grained tannins and lively acid. It’s a classic Grange in terms of construction, though a little atypical considering its pretty rather than powerful nature.
Source: Robert Parker (Robert Parker Wine Advocate) by Lisa Perrotti-Brown. September, 2015

RP points: I have been fortunate enough to have this wine on five occasions, rating it consistently between 96 and 100. Hence, as part of this tasting, it was one of the vintages I could not wait to smell, taste, and drink. Each bottle opened proved to be disappointing, giving additional credibility to the axiom, There are no great wines, just great bottles. A blend of 87% Shiraz and 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, this was always considered one of the great vintages of Grange. If you had to point to a wine which fulfilled all the ambitions of Grange, it would have to be 1971, said Max Schubert when tasting it in 1993. It is a legendary wine, but for whatever reason, the two bottles opened at the tasting were dominated by tannin, had baked-out, cooked flavors, and no succulence or sweetness...in short, shadows of what this wine had been in all previous tastings. Obviously, storage of the older vintages of Grange is impeccable, so that clearly is not an issue, but I would love to have another crack at this vintage in the future, as it is hard to believe that in the two years that have passed since I last tasted the 1971, it has fallen apart.

points. Source: Robert Parker (eRobertParker.com) February, 2002 by Robert Parker