In the words of poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox, “good music is wine turned to sound.” This limited-edition Penfolds record player with a hidden surprise certainly attests to that.
Founded in Adelaide in 1844, Penfolds is one of Australia’s oldest wineries and part of Treasury Wine Estates. Penfolds’ Grange, made from the Shiraz grape and a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon, is widely thought of as Australia’s ‘first growth’ and is the brand’s most collectible wine.
Every celebration features wine and music, so in order to properly celebrate the Grange’s 70th anniversary, Penfolds has revealed a limited-edition vinyl record player console. Created with New York-based design studio Symbol Audio, only seven of the handcrafted pieces have been produced; each one was created by a single craftsman and took around 100 hours to create.
[See also: Luxury Wine Subscriptions Soar Long After Lockdown]
Just seven of the record players have been made, with each one taking around 100 hours to create / ©Penfolds
The design harks back to the ‘all in one’ design from the 1950s — the same decade that Grange was first created by Max Schubert, the pioneering winemaker.
Celebrating time-honored bench-made furniture, Symbol Audio is known for merging analog electronics and digital technology to enrich the musical experience; and this record player delivers an elevated, high-quality sound that pairs perfectly with a glass of Grange.
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The console has a hidden compartment that houses two rare ‘White Capsule’ Grange magnums from the 2010 and 2017 vintages, respectively. It will also have automatic interior lighting, a custom Penfolds turntable mat, vinyl record storage, 6.5-inch full-range speakers, glass storage space and a handblown Grange decanter, created especially by Australian glass artist Nick Mount.
The record player has been built with Symbol Audio’s state of the art technology / ©Penfolds
$75,000, penfolds.com
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This article appears in the 29 Nov 2021 issue of the New Statesman, Winter 2021/22
