April 5, 2024 - Beautiful cedar and blackberry on the nose. Palate is nuanced - still strong tannins but the fruit is sweet and the whole is wonderfully balanced. Still has years to go but it’s perfect right now. Great vintage of an Aussie classic - so good.
January 27, 2024 - Dave B Visits Albany, Day 2 (Salil's, Albany, NY): [Pop and pour.] Big, smokey, black fruit nose. Rich, complex, and long. Smooth and delicious. Should drink well for another decade.
January 27, 2024 - The second bottle from an unopened 6 bottle OWC from my dad’s cellar, and just as good as the first that I opened last year. Deep fruit, cedar and earthy elements, and still strong framing tannins. I loved this.
January 27, 2024 - Rieslingfan visits Albany; 1/26/2024-1/27/2024 (Châteauneuf-du-Salil, Albany): Just a superb bottle of Cabernet. Equal parts youthful black fruit and more mature cedary, tobacco, earthy, and light minty flavours, all conveyed on a medium weight frame with impressive power and a sense of restraint and finesse. It's still incredibly young, showing quite a bit of tannin that only really eases up after a few hours, and holds up extremely well over a few hours at dinner.
January 20, 2024 - Bob’s cellar. Dark brooding black and red. No bricking at all. Spices black fruit with distinct red fruit acidity nose, mocha and liquorice, very heavy. Has strong blended Barossa dark cherry damson and black fruit that has moved to tertiary aging of wood, pepper, liquorice, leather and cedar, I feel slightly disappointed this is not better, so less than 90 (particularly given the extraordinary prices it now commands).
June 3, 2023 - Lovely and nearly fully resolved, but not showing the complexity I would want for current market pricing.
May 30, 2023 - 25 years old and feels at its peak. Still plenty of fresh blackcurrant and cassis, some coffee and vanilla notes, subtle but exotic spices. A lovely and balanced package. Upgraded a point to 95 on day 2, just because it made me smile so much. Drink now and over the next 5 years, maybe longer - but it's so good now, why wait?
May 29, 2023 - What a great wine; mature (still with some life), lovely, nuanced fruit, subtle nose, some acidity, long finish, great balance; stands up to any world-class Left Bank Bordeaux .
May 7, 2023 - A wonderfully youthful bottle, this shows no age with intense black and blue fruit, a hint of mint and a balance of power and elegance. Stunning and just plain fun to drink!
April 23, 2023 - Fabulous. Bought 6-plus on release. Can't recall the price (~$75/bottle?), and now ~$895/bottle. The cork w as amazing. Not only barely any 'seepage', but solid as a rock on removal. The bottle number was 116476. Multiplying the bottle number by $895 = $104,246,020. That's $104MM. And who knows how many more bottles were produced?
Penfolds at its best? Let's see it goes as a Luxury Goods Company?