The Penfolds Collection: 12 Wines Incl. 8 x 100 Point Grange 2018, Saturday 25 April
The Penfolds Collection Tasting Lineup…
Bin 311 Chardonnay 2024
Bin A Chardonnay 2019
Bin 21 Grenache 2024
Bin 138 Shiraz Grenache Mataro 2018
Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2022
Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz 2023
Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 2023
Penfolds St Henri Shiraz 2019
Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2022
RWT Bin 798 Barossa Valley Shiraz 2021
Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon 2023
Grange 2018
100 Points: Andrew Caillard MW
100 Points: Nick Stock (JamesSuckling.com)
100 Points: Ken Gargett (World of Fine Wine)
100 Points: Lisa Perrotti-Brown (The Wine Independent)
100 Points: Tony Love
100 Points: Anders Enquist (Livets Goda)
100 Points: Wilfred Wong (Wine.com)
20/20 Points: André Kunz (Weinzeitung)
Plus
99 Points from Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
19 Points Jancis Robinson, Jancis Robinson.com
19++ Points Richard Hemming, Jancis Robinson.com
Penfolds have never been better.
The 60’s, the 70’s, the 80’s & the 90’s
all saw Penfolds produce Australia’s greatest and greatest value for money reds.
Since 2010, the reds are far superior again. For 15 to 20 years, the chardonnays have also been amongst Australia’s international image creating greatest – with worldwide show records to match.
Quite extraordinary really.
Our 4 person full time research team looked at Penfold’s 100 point scores in about 2020
We found well over 50 … of which 26 or 27 were from international reviewers - and 24 or 25 from Australian critics.
We have checked, and don’t believe there was another Australian winery at that time with more than 2
(- perhaps even 5 or so - in Parker’s mid 2000 s splurge on the Barossa.)
Saturday April 25th
Lunch: 12-2.30pm, 12 Wines & 4 Courses, $285
Tasting: 3-5pm, 12 Wines with Kate Lamont’s canapes, $185
Hosted by (JJ) John Jens
Just some of the…
Awards & Accolades from Over the Years
- 29 Winery of the Year awards from Wine & Spirits Magazine.
(More than any other winery in the world)
- The FINE Wine Magazine's2021 Best Winery of the World
(The world’s most respected wine magazine)
- 2021 Golden Vines Best Fine Wine Producer in the Rest of
the World Award
- 2016 and 2019 Most Admired Wine Brand from Drinks International
- 2015 Winery of the Year from Wine Enthusiast Magazine
(US) - Joshua Greene
- 2014 Winery of the Year from James Halliday Australian
Wine Companion (Australia) - James Halliday
- 2013 Winery of the Year from Wine Enthusiast Magazine
(US) - Joshua Greene
- 2013 Winery of the Year from Wine Taste Weekly (Australia)
- Tyson Stelzer
- 2013 New World Winery of the Year from Wine Enthusiast Magazine (US)
Wine & Spirits Mag (US)
- 2013 Best Launch for the Ampoule Campaign from The Drinks Business Awards (UK)
-2012 Winery of the Year from The Good Wine Guide 2013 (Australia)
The Penfolds Context:
Peter Gago: Penfolds Chief Winemaker:
Annual Hall of Fame Inductee in 2021, (Formerly: The Decanter International Wine Person of The Year,) …the international industry’s most prestigious award. Peter criss-crosses the globe on a weekly basis, juggling
and overseeing winemaking withfruit from at least Australian 3 states & California, Bordeaux, Champagne … etc!
- Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine’s Winemaker of the Year 2014
- In 2021, Peter joined Decanter's prestigious 'Hall of Fame'
- 2018 honorary doctorate from the University of South Australia
in recognition of outstanding service to the Australian wine
industry
- Companion of The Order of Australia (AC) in 2017
- 2016 Bragg Membership of the Royal Institution of Australia
for services to oenology
- 2015 Baron of the Barossa
- 2012 Winemaker's Winemaker Award from The Institute of
the Masters of Wine and The Drinks Business (UK)
- 2007 Winemaker of the Year by The Barons of the Barossa (Australia)
- 2005 Winemaker of the Year from Wine Enthusiast Magazine
The Wine List & Menu
First Course
2024 Penfolds Bin 311 Chardonnay
"Pale colour, Grapefruit lanolin tonic water aromas with some flinty herb notes. Generously flavoured and creamy textured with lovely pure grapefruit, white peach flavours, fine loose knit dry chalky textures, attractive mid-palate viscosity/ pith and underlying marzipan notes. Finishes crispy and minerally long. A generous expression of Bin 311. Drink now - 2035. 13% alc.
95 Points - Andrew Caillard MW
2019 Penfolds Bin 19A Chardonnay
98 Points - James Halliday
97 Points - Andrew Caillard MW
97 Points - Tyson Stelzer
97 Points - Ray Jordan
96+ Points - PointsCampbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
- Gold Medal IWC London 2021
- Trophy IWC London, Best Adelaide Hills Chardonnay, 2021
- Trophy IWC London, Best Australian Chardonnay, 2021
- Trophy IWC London, Best Australian White Wine, 2021
Hand picked, whole-bunch pressed, part direct to barriques for wild ferment and 100% mlf, the balance via tank for brief settling before 8 months in French oak (80% new). A beautifully detailed chardonnay, white peach and pink grapefruit plus supple creamy cashew run through the very long palate. Rubs shoulders with the best in the land.
98 Points - James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion
Pale gold. Classic flinty, grapefruit, nectarine aromas with underlying vanilla roasted almond notes. Generous in flavour yet tight in structure with pure grapefruit white peach nectarine flavours, creamy textures, savoury complexity and fresh persistent mineral acidity. Finishes long, sweet and crisp with light marzipan notes. Beautiful wine. Wonderful cutting-edge Australian Chardonnay showing superb volume, richness of fruit and tension. An Australian First Growth Chardonnay reflecting superb fruit sourcing and winemaking philosophy. Move over Puligny!
97 Points - Andrew Caillard MW
Abrolhos scallops, Nduja butter
Second Course
2024 Penfolds Bin 21 Grenache
The Bin 21 Grenache has been in fine form lately and again impresses with the '24 release. A vibrant medium crimson in the glass with aromas of red and dark plum, boysenberry, raspberry and wild strawberry. Hints of exotic spice, cola, pomegranate juice, earth and gingerbread. Pure plummy fruits on the palate with hints of ginger cake. A cloud of nice fine tannin provides some gentle chew to its form, and there is a plume of pure fruit and spice on the exit.
95 Points - Dave Brooks, Halliday Wine Companion
2018 Penfolds Bin 138 Shiraz Grenache Mataro
Deep crimson. Intense blackberry, musky plum, inky aromas with roasted walnut notes. Generous velvety wine with deep set juicy blackberry, dark chocolate, musky plum fruits, fine plentiful chocolaty firm textures, savoury oak complexity and integrated fine acidity. Finishes chocolaty leafy firm with musky plum aniseed notes. Delicious early drinking style with superb richness of flavour and power. Best to drink soon. Seal; screwcap Now – 2028 14.5% alc 95 points. Fantastic early drinking style with dense colour, plentiful grenache-like musky complexity, superb viscosity and freshness. A highlight of the 2020 Collection. Around 14 months in seasoned French & American oak hogsheads.
95 Points - Andrew Caillard MW
2022 Penfolds Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz
A powerful expression of Coonawarra in a season that finished pretty good, providing fruit of great depth and concentration, but with typical regional elegance. Shows lots more meaty shiraz characters than the previous year with a cracked black pepper influence adding further lift. The palate is quite firm with grainy chalky tannins in support. Nice leafy nuance on the finish. These wines can handle extended cellaring.
94 Points - Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com
2023 Penfolds Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz
In recent times, the Bin 150 has been one of my favourite red wines in the Penfolds quiver. It shows pure blood plum and black cherry fruits studded with ironstone, baking spices, olive tapenade, dark chocolate, blackforest cake, cedar and earth. It speaks clearly of its subregional origins, that being Marananga in the western Barossa Valley. I love the shape and fruit weight of this wine. The ferrous tannins provide a framework and the pure fruit drapes off that tannin architecture beautifully. It's a cracking release.
96 Points - Dave Brooks, Halliday Wine Companion
Duck croquette, salsa verde
Third Course
2023 Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
This wine has been made every vintage since 1960. Refined, generous and polished aromas of blackberries, blackcurrants, cured meat, crushed stones and iodine. The palate is full-bodied with a rounded, textural palate and ultra-refined tannins that lead to a silky, savory, black-fruited finish. Excellent. Drink or hold.
97 Points - James Suckling
2019 Penfolds St Henri Shiraz
98 Points - Tony Love, Wine Pilot
19+/20 Points - Matthew Jukes
97 Points - Nick Stock, James Suckling
96+ Points - Erin Larkin, Robert Parkers Wine Advocate
96 Points - David Sly, Decanter Magazine
96 Points - Lisa Perrotti-Brown
This can only ever be a stylistic expression of the shiraz variety, as sourcing from six SA districts eliminates regionality. (For the record, The Peninsulas is a defined GI region, this fruit coming from the outskirts of Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula.) The wine's point of difference within the Penfolds range is that it has no new oak maturation and spends only 12 months in large format seasoned vats. The result is a sophisticated, dark, almost mysterious shiraz, a wine with secrets within that one suspects will reveal great joys over the next 20 to 30 years, as its forebears have proved for more than half a century. For now, in and around the black fruits there are flint, mushroom, licorice and roast meat notes. Plenty to unpack. A serious SA shiraz that remains a really enticing proposition.
98 Points - Tony Love, Wine Pilot
2022 Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon
This is another multi-regional blend from vineyards in Coonawarra, Padthaway, Wrattonbully, McLaren Vale and the Barossa. This marks the continuing more to the cooler southern regions, especially in a year like 2022 which was superb down there. Aromas of floral, sage and dried herbs on the nose. The palate shows delicious, sweet ripe fruit with flavours of iron filings. I reckon this is one of the best yet under this label. Like that seashell minerality and chalky character on the finish. Cellar 20 years.
97 Points - Ray Jordan
Angus a la minute, black garlic, leafy greens
Fourth Course
2021 Penfolds RWT Bin 798 Barossa Valley Shiraz
An excellent RWT release from Barossa Valley shiraz matured in French oak hogsheads (80/20% new/one-year-old) for 14 months. Purple splashed crimson in the glass, it smells Barossa through and through with super-ripe dark plum, mulberry and blue fruits cut through with hints of baking spices, berry cream, licorice, panforte, dark chocolate, cedar and struck flint. Concentrated and opulent with densely packed fine tannins, deep, resonant Barossa fruit and a powerful yet elegant, distinctly regional profile. Another for the cellar.
96 Points - Dave Brooks, Halliday Wine Companion
2023 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon
here's no doubting the pedigree of the Bin 707. First released in 1964, it is one of Australia's finest cabernets, and the '23 release is a continuation of its stellar bloodline. Deep crimson with aromas of macerated blackberry, black cherry, blackcurrant, cassis and doris plum fruits with hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, blackforest cake and dried herbs. Notes of distant bramble, cedar, licorice and earth. For all its depth and latent power, I like the clarity and detail in this release. The fruit is on-point, pure. The fine-grained tannins, showing heft initially, slowly recess into the fruit, resulting in a wine of elegance, grace and sleekness of shape. One for the cellar – if you can keep your hands off it.
97 Points - Dave Brooks, Halliday Wine Companion
2018 Penfolds Grange Shiraz
Ken Gargett Wine of the Year 2022
James Suckling Top 100 Value Wines of the World 2022
James Suckling Top 100 Wines of Australia 2022
100 Points - Andrew Caillard MC, The Vintage Journal
100 Points - Nick Stock, JamesSuckling.com
100 Points - Tony Love, Wine Pilot
100 Points - Ken Gargett, The World of Fine Wine
100 Points - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent
99 Points - Jeni Port, Wine Pilot
99 Points - Erin Larkin
Deep colour. Beautfiul and classic, with intense blackberry, blackcurrant dark chocolate espresso aromas and wax polish, roasted chestnut, malt notes. Superbly concenrated wine with deep-set inky blackberry, blackcurrant, dark plum, dark chocolate mocha flavours, fine chocolaty/velvety tannins, underlying espresso, malt, oak notes and hints of aniseed. Finishes chocolaty firm with superbly integrated acidity and mineral length. A glorious year for Grange. This will last 50 years at least. Wonderful. One of the greatest vintages of all time, highlighting a superb growing season, marvellous vineyard management, the fidelity of the Penfolds house style, and generations of imagination and effort. 97% Shriaz, 3% Cabernet Sauvignon. Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and Clare Valley. 18 months maturation in 100% new American oak hogsheads. Drink 2030-2060+.
100 Points - Andrew Caillard MC, The Vintage Journal
A robust Grange from a lauded vintage, this wields sheer power with such compelling prowess. Uncompromising Grange. There are rich blackberries and plums on offer, together with brazen oak and abundant notes of blackcurrants, black cherries, charcoal, cola and hard brown spices. So fleshy and intense. Dark-chocolate and cocoa-powder aromas and flavors here, too. The tannins are polished and long, extruding deep into the finish and holding endlessly. Dark chocolate, black cherry, dark plum and more. Impressive. Brazen. One of the great Granges that will drink magnificently for decades to come.
100 Points - Nick Stock, JamesSuckling.com
There was one wine, however, that I was even keener to taste again: the 2018 Grange. I’d given it 100 points the first time I tasted it and was blown away. That said, when one goes big, so to speak, for such a young wine, there are always nagging doubts. Did it really deserve such an exulted score? I was far from the only one to rate it so highly, but I was still keen to see whether or not I had gotten a bit too excited on the day. Absolutely not. This is a truly spectacular wine, fully deserving of its score. Indeed, I think it is the most thrilling young Grange (Aussie red wine, if you like) that I have ever tasted, and that in time it will sit with the very best: 1952, 1953, 1962, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, and 2012. No doubt others will have their own view on the greatest Granges, but all these must rank with the finest (in fairness, I should state that I have included the 1952 on reputation as I have not had the pleasure).
So my 'wine of the year' came down to the choice from a pair from Penfolds: the 1962 Bin 60A and the 2018 Grange. I’m opting for the latter, simply because it will still be available (and a fraction of the price, though hardly everyday drinking at AUD$1,000)."
100 Points - Ken Gargett, The World of Fine Wine