Penfolds Collection 2017 – and performing monkeys

The annual launch of The Penfolds Collection, the jewel in Treasury Wine Estates' crown, has become almost as ritualistically stage-managed as the annual Bordeaux en primeur circus. 

I really enjoy my annual chance to taste these extremely carefully made new releases and shoot the breeze with Penfolds' ultra-likeable chief winemaker Peter Gago (seen here in Penfolds' historic Magill cellar). But, to employ a perhaps ridiculously laboured analogy, I can't avoid the feeling that in the case of both Penfolds and Bordeaux, we wine writers are not too far from performing monkeys designed to add value to the grinding of...