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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 89.2 pts. and median of 90 pts. in 21 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Rudolph Schmidt on 2/3/2024: 12 months in French oak hogsheads (25% new) & American oak hogsheads (10% new, 18% 1-y.o., 36% 2-y.o, 11% 3-y.o.). Decanted an hour.
Blackberry, tomato paste, cola, 5 spice, cassis, herbaceous, hint of wintergreen, mocha.
This has improved dramatically since I last tried it! (558 views) | | | Tasted by Rudolph Schmidt on 11/19/2022: Decanted an hourish.
Mint, eucalyptus, blackcurrant, coffee grounds, black pepper, cherry, herbaceous. (1457 views) | | | Tasted by SirJ on 6/6/2020 & rated 93 points: First day a little sharp but you can really sence what is lurking. Crazy good day 2, lucky to have 3 left who will get some rest now. So cruelly balanced, pure harmony to drink 👍🥇🍷 (3551 views) | | | Tasted by Gdubya on 5/17/2020 & rated 91 points: Over 2 days. Typical house style and very young. Nice, if unspectacular. Hold for now 90-91prs (3303 views) | | | Tasted by Gavin Sutherland on 3/8/2020 & rated 90 points: Big and powerful. Decanted for about 2 hours but I reckon it needs about 5yrs more in bottle. Dark ruby red, thick tannins and flavours of leather, blackcurrant, black pepper, mint. It was bottle #4 of the night so palate wasn’t at it’s finest! Keen to try again in a few years (3238 views) | | | Tasted by DrBad on 6/9/2019 & rated 89 points: Medium body, lighter than I expected. Fruit, tobacco with a bit of a minty finish. Drinkable but not worth the price, IMO. (3713 views) | | | Tasted by Saintock on 3/22/2019 & rated 90 points: Very aromatic, black fruit/plum taste. Pepperish. Good finish length. Still young.... (3324 views) | | | Tasted by J.S on 11/14/2018 & rated 86 points: Firm ruby red colour, showing green bell pepper on the nose, reminds me of many Chilean cabs.
On entry almost nothing of note, its tough to tell what I am drinking, either then its relatively smooth, narrow bodied, and short lasting. Any notes of flavour return to the green bell pepper on the nose, thinking this was harvested under ripe, and likely well before complete phenolic ripeness. This wine drinks at a $20-$30 price point, complete disappointment.
Had beside a 15 307, and a 14 St. Henri, this was easily the worst. (2268 views) | | | Tasted by Ben Christiansen on 9/26/2018: With some grip and pretty tight. (2685 views) | | | Tasted by Double-A on 8/7/2018 & rated 90 points: Dark currant, mint and mineral nose with a bit of cocoa. Ripe and assertive, focused and precise palate. Good with integrated oak elements.
4/5 (2597 views) | | | Tasted by SlimShaney on 4/6/2018 & rated 87 points: Served too warm at Wagyu, HK.
Drunk people singing was music to my ears and seemed almost professional compared to this amateur wine effort. Come on Penfolds - you're our national icon.
Too broad. Too gluggy. Www. (2440 views) | | | Tasted by Deo68 on 4/3/2018 & rated 75 points: Almost black. Mint and blackcurranty nose. Still green and closed. Highly tannic. Promising but too early to drink. Retry in 18 months.
Oasis Len&Den (1958 views) | | | Tasted by Stevelayden on 2/6/2018 & rated 91 points: I was really excited to try this after working my way through the 2017 Penfolds collection. The Bin 28 Shiraz and Bin 389 were spectacular and I had high hopes for the Cabernet Savignon bottlings. The nose on this was incredible - fruity, brooding, and grips your attention. But this comes across as very muscular. Very fine tannins that will continue to improve with age, but unlike the Shiraz-based offerings, the 14.5% alcohol comes across as ungainly and assertive. This will age gracefully, but for the price there are far better French Cabs and absolutely spectacular Shiraz pickings from the Penfolds catalog. (2082 views) | | | Tasted by CamWheeler on 11/10/2017 & rated 90 points: Festival of Alex - Penfolds Kalimna with Stephanie Dutton: Quite a green streak through this along with violets, spice, cherry and some lifted perfume. The green shows on the palate as well but it blends in nicely with some relatively restrained black fruits. Fine tannin help give it some good structure. I like the less ripe style here. (1790 views) |
| NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Vinous and JamesSuckling.com and The WINEFRONT and Decanter and JancisRobinson.com and Halliday Wine Companion. (manage subscription channels) |
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About Us
Australia's winemaking history of less than two hundred years is brief by European measures though, like Europe, punctuated by periods of extreme success and difficult times. From the earliest winemaking days Penfolds has figured prominently and few would argue the importance of Penfolds’ influence on Australia’s winemaking psyche.
Without the influence of Penfolds the modern Australian wine industry would look very different indeed. Sitting comfortably outside of fad and fashion, Penfolds has taken Australian wine to the world on a grand stage and forged a reputation for quality that is without peer.
Penfolds’ reputation for making wines of provenance and cellaring potential might suggest a mantle of tradition and formality is the preferred attire of a company with so much history to defend. But to label Penfolds as simply an established and conventional winemaker, would be to confuse tradition with consideration and to overlook the innovative spirit that has driven Penfolds since its foundation, and continues to find expression in modern times.
If there is anything traditional about Penfolds, it is the practice of constantly reviewing the wines it already does well, and continuously evolving and refining styles as vineyards mature and access to ever older and more varied vineyard sites improves.
Making The Best Possible Wine
At Penfolds, the role of the winemaker is to make the best possible wine within the constraints of each vintage. Penfolds’ house style emerged from a fortified-wine producing culture and evolved as a winemaking philosophy – a way of making wine – which has had a profound effect on the entire Australian wine industry.
The concept of multi-regional and vineyard blending, a feature of the Penfolds house style, is an amplification of the ‘all-round wine’. Without the constraints of a single vineyard, winemakers could choose the best possible fruit with the outstanding characteristics of each vineyard.
While American oak has played a central role in the development of Penfolds red wines, French oak has been increasingly used in the evolution of new wines – particularly RWT and Yattarna. Maturation in oak, which follows fermentation, is also key to the Penfolds house style.
The Penfolds approach to winemaking has percolated through the entire Australian wine industry over the last 50 years. The techniques employed in research and development of Penfolds wines are remarkable and many of the discoveries and innovations have had a lasting impact on winemaking thinking.
Winemakers
In Max Schubert, Don Ditter, John Duval and Peter Gago, Penfolds has nurtured four of Australia's great winemakers. They have passed the Chief Winemaker’s baton of responsibility for crafting some of Australia's most iconic wines, down through the past six decades.
Joining Peter Gago in the Penfolds winemaking team are Senior Red Winemaker Steve Lienert, Senior White Winemaker Kym Schroeter, and Red Winemakers Andrew Baldwin, Adam Clay, Stephanie Dutton and Matt Woo - also the Penfolds Fortified Winemaker. All members of the Penfolds winemaking team ensure that Penfolds’ reputation for outstanding quality is upheld.
Vineyards
Barossa Valley
Penfolds draws fruit from a combined vineyard area of 618 hectares in the Barossa region of South Australia. The Barossa is about 70 kilometres north of Adelaide and in 1911 Penfolds established a winery at Nuriootpa, completed in time for the 1913 vintage. The Barossa region is known for its relatively low rainfall with many vineyards dry grown on single wire trellising.
Magill Estate
The historic and heritage-protected Magill Estate Vineyard was established in 1844 by Dr Christopher Rawson and Mary Penfold—just eight years after the foundation of Adelaide. It was originally known as the Grange Vineyard, named after their new homestead ‘The Grange’, a cottage which still stands intact amongst the vines.
Eden Valley
Joseph Gilbert planted the first vines in the Eden Valley in 1842 and since that time the region has become synonymous with producing elegant riesling and complex shiraz. While its name suggests a concave nature, Eden Valley is actually a wide ridge, situated east of the Barossa Valley with an altitude ranging from 440 – 550 metres.
McLaren Vale
McLaren Vale is located approximately 40km to the south of Adelaide, with the vineyards in the region located between 6 and 15 kilometres from the Gulf of St Vincent. The elevation ranges from 50 to 350 metres above sea level. Penfolds has company owned vineyards throughout the region, using the fruit as blending components for premium red wines such as Grange and Bin 389.
Coonawarra
Penfolds has had a long history with the Coonawarra region, dating back to their first vineyard purchase in 1960. It is one of the most famous red wine regions in Australia with weathered limestone terra rossa soils, relatively cool climate and overall water availability. Coonawarra has played a significant role in many of Penfolds' multi-regional wines as well as the single region wines such as Bin 128.
James Halliday Australian Wine Companion Winery Of The Year 2014: Penfolds
Penfolds is Australia’s foremost winemaker, with an unbroken line dating back to its establishment in 1844 when medical practitioner Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold and wife Mary purchased ‘the delightfully situated and truly valuable of Mackgill … Comprising 500 acres (202 hectares) of the choicest land’. Here they built the house that still stands today, and within a few years had begun the winery and cellar on the site of today’s buildings at Magill Estate.
Mary took charge of winemaking, initially producing grenache prescribed by her husband as a tonic for anaemic patients. By 1870 she, son-in-law Thomas Hyland and cellar manager/winemaker Joseph Gillard had formed Penfolds & Co. With markets in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, their wine production was over one-third of South Australia’s total.
Growth continued unabated, and in 1945 Penfolds acquired the jewel of the Magill Vineyard, at that time the largest vineyard in South Australia. It now has 2100 hectares of vineyards, the largest share of Australia’s total. Two men came together in the 1950s to lay the foundation of Penfolds today: winemaker Max Schubert, and research chemist Ray Beckwith (who died shortly after his 100th birthday in 2012); indeed, their contribution transcended Penfolds to the entire Australian wine industry.
The architecture for the Penfolds wine portfolio of the twenty-first century was established in the 1960s, half a century ago. There has been growth, both in the range of labels and their price points, but it has been cleverly – indeed sensitively – managed; demand-driven growth has been achieved without any quality compromise whatsoever.
There is no possibility that the pre-eminence of Penfolds will ever be challenged by any other Australian wine business. Equally certain is that the Penfolds brand value will continue to gain ground on the world stage of all consumable products. If proof be needed, the overall quality of the wines in this Wine Companion is the best Penfolds has ever presented to the markets of the globe.
Author: James Halliday Jul 2013Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 407Launched with the 1990 vintage in 1993, Bin 407 was developed in response to the increasing availability of high quality Cabernet Sauvignon fruit. Inspired by Bin 707, Bin 407 offers varietal definition and approachability, yet still with structure and depth of flavour. Textbook Cabernet Sauvignon, the varietally expressive Bin 407 highlights the rewards of Penfolds multi-region, multi-vineyard blending, with a core of ripe fruit supported by sensitive use of French and American oak.Cabernet SauvignonCabernet Sauvignon is probably the most famous red wine grape variety on Earth. It is rivaled in this regard only by its Bordeaux stablemate Merlot, and its opposite number in Burgundy, Pinot Noir. From its origins in Bordeaux, Cabernet has successfully spread to almost every winegrowing country in the world. It is now the key grape variety in many first-rate New World wine regions, most notably Napa Valley, Coonawarra and Maipo Valley. Wherever they come from, Cabernet Sauvignon wines always seem to demonstrate a handful of common character traits: deep color, good tannin structure, moderate acidity and aromas of blackcurrant, tomato leaf, dark spices and cedarwood.
Used as frequently in blends as in varietal wines, Cabernet Sauvignon has a large number of common blending partners. Apart from the obvious Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the most prevalent of these are Malbec, Petit Verdot and Carmenere (the ingredients of a classic Bordeaux Blend), Shiraz (in Australia's favorite blend) and in Spain and South America, a Cabernet – Tempranillo blend is now commonplace. Even the bold Tannat-based wines of Madiran are now generally softened with Cabernet SauvignonAustralia Wine Australia (Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation) | Australian Wines (Wikipedia)South Australia South Australian Wine Industry Association | South Australian Wines (Wikipedia) |
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