1994 Penfolds Sémillon Trial Bin

Community Tasting Notes (2)

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  9/9/2023 - Val D'or Likes this wine: 100 Points

  Its been 29 years!!! I had written off this bottle, hiding under the stairs of a full brick home. Tonight, a friend opened it with a Durant cockscrew and the cork was literally moist, but had not leaked. The wine still at a good level at the neck of the bottle. Colour was same as a Chateau Y'quem. Dark opulent yellow. The nose had no fruit but a toasty aroma, a little popcorn even. Definitely not white vinegar LOL. We poured 8 glasses very quickly and tasted within 5 minutes of opening. The palate ? Well, we all were bamboozled by the savoury and structure of the liquid. It had good body and not watery, it had a little honey and apples flavours when I had this in 1996. It was 100 points for lasting 29 years. I tried a half glass saved up after 4 hours. It was gone and sour with after taste of bitter shallots. I will never forget this experience.

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  9/1/2014 - graemeg wrote:

  NobleRottersSydney - Ten & Twenty years - 04 & 94 reds (360 Bar & Dining, Sydney): {cork, 13%} (Geoffrey) One of the last roadmap wines made as part of Penfolds quest to invent ‘white Grange’ (the first Yattarna was a 1995 chardonnay); twenty year old semillon under cork is always cause for concern, even if it has McLaren Vale fruit in it. Amazingly, this was still soldiering on quite well. As dark in colour as you’d expect. An aged nose of oak and tobacco foreshadows a palate that tastes rather like an ashtray, but not unpleasantly so. Plenty of old oak here; the wine has held up in a one-dimensional way; dry and vaguely toasty, it’s more structure than flavour now. Still quite drinkable, if not really memorable.

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