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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 91.9 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 63 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by wizlb on 4/22/2024 & rated 92 points: Sometime over the next 5 months or during this winter, try the 2020 Penfolds 389…and you will find it to be a nice drop, that is well balance, medium body with a long finish.. (1398 views) | | | Tasted by Lion's Share on 4/12/2024 & rated 93 points: A very dark blue fruit nose with tar, black licorice, and old leather notes. This is a dense, weighty Bin 389, with about equal proportions of Cabernet to Shiraz. The Cabernet proportion seems to predominate on the palate. It’s spicy-smoky, oaky-smooth, fruity and bold. The tannins have a nice grip. The finish carries smoothly through on the strength of the ever-intense fruit and good supporting freshness. (1565 views) | | | Tasted by Uff Da on 4/7/2024 & rated 92 points: Been wanting to try this for years, see the hype is real. (1735 views) | | | Tasted by Plochs on 4/6/2024: $60
Total wine (1569 views) | | | Tasted by SGates on 4/3/2024 & rated 93 points: Decanted several hours before drinking. Starts with lots of black flavors such as black licorice, black tea and graphite. Moves on to sweeter chocolate and vanilla. Medium finish, smooth tannins and not as powerful as many Penfolds. Interesting blend of Cab Sauv and Shiraz. Would drink again. (1557 views) | | | Tasted by sjfunkenhauser on 4/3/2024 & rated 92 points: Decanted for 2 hours. A bit closed on the nose, but a very expressive palate. Plush dark fruit, soft spices, eucalyptus and some minerality. The oak is evident, but not overblown which should hopefully soften with age. No surprise this is still quite young, but I couldn't resist opening one. Would wait at least 5+ years to open another.
Deep ruby colour.
Pronounce aromas crushed blackberry, blackcurrant, ripe strawberry, dark plum, cedar, vanilla, milk chocolate, cinnamon, graphite, crushed gravel, mint, eucalyptus.
Pronounced palate.
Full body, high tannin, high acidity, long finish. (1792 views) | | | Tasted by Mkotik on 3/20/2024 & rated 92 points: Very dark color. On verge of purple.
Dark fruits. Some spices. Rich and full but doesn't fill hot. Balanced. (1893 views) | | | Tasted by SH Wu on 3/9/2024 & rated 88 points: Needed a day in bottle to open. Fresh, minty black fruits from the cabernet and spicy savory red fruits from the shiraz mingle on the palate. It has a lot of markers of both cabernet and shiraz, backed by a creamy vanilla from the barrels.
Solid red wine. (1939 views) | | | Tasted by Kericks on 2/25/2024 & rated 93 points: Fresh blackberry, creamy vanilla, hint of tobacco. well balanced and bright. Fruity but still reasonable acid. Very drinkable, not too complex. Next time I’ll try decanting it longer as others have noted it improves with time! (2396 views) | | | Tasted by davidsa on 2/7/2024 & rated 93 points: Decanted 8hrs before tasting. Great combination of Cab and Shiraz. Very fruity at the begging and showing the green notes after a while. With black currant, menthol, dark chocolate and spices. My first Bin 389 so was a bit worried about harsh tannins but not at all! Of course will improve with bottle time but drinking really well right now. Great body and decent acidity. Amazing finish. (2501 views) | | | Tasted by BordeauxBoy on 1/28/2024 & rated 93 points: Still very young and thinking after 10 years of aging, this will be a much higher rating. Opened for three hours and drank over 2 more with other open wines. It kept improving. Don't think this will truly be a baby Grange as the Cabernet is way more dominant here...which in no way is a bad thing either. Nice fruit and still rather primary. Delicious now but will tuck my other bottles away for a while. (2451 views) | | | Tasted by Cuellar's Cellar on 1/28/2024 & rated 92 points: First time having this wine. Dark, and inky. you can definitely hold this wine for a while. I would buy more for sure. This was a great Costco find. Cheers (2963 views) | | | Tasted by MicklethePickle on 1/11/2024 & rated 92 points: My first Bin 389; opened last night. Very dark; looks the part. More purple than red. Lots of cedar in both nose and mouth. Tobacco. Chock full of ripe fruit in a very modern style. Still pretty classy. 5-12-17-8: 92/100. (3228 views) | | | Tasted by shellylowen on 1/2/2024 & rated 92 points: Cedar nose and too much cedar in the body and finish. Blackberry and black currant. Medium body. Slightly bitter finish. Decanted for 2 1/2 hours. (2802 views) | | | Tasted by Fronko on 10/21/2023 & rated 92 points: First oak is dominating while after some air vanilla and dark fruitiness takes over. Drank together with koonunga 2018 and the 389 clearly outshined its little brother.
Will wait a number of years with next one. (3698 views) | | | Tasted by MattMauldin on 10/16/2023: Wine & Spirits Top 100 Wineries Tasting Event - Quick Impressions - Oct 11: Black cherry, currant, baking spices and tobacco, refined and smooth with full plush tannins. (3806 views) | | | Tasted by Bigdong on 10/12/2023 & rated 94 points: W&S. dark fruit, spices, not much tannins, can drink now. (3525 views) | | | Tasted by Swintonblade on 6/30/2023 & rated 91 points: Very young still, touch of mint, big tannins but showing good fruit just needs time to soften (4413 views) | | | Tasted by Tyler Wine Guy on 6/18/2023 & rated 91 points: Happy Fathers Day (4244 views) | | | Tasted by YackAttack213 on 3/29/2023 & rated 90 points: 90 Mar 2023 small PnP sample 👃 even from a small pour there is a fantastic purple fruit aromas. 👅 Concentrated dark cherry, great acid, lots of tannin but not astringent, after a few more minutes there's some oak and associated spices. After 9hr decant, hasn't gained a lot more and as the evening went on the wine got more grippy. Needs more time, as expected. (2256 views) | | | Tasted by Jobu on 3/25/2023 & rated 94 points: Runner up at Boston Wine Expo. The Shiraz portion is supposedly grapes that just missed the Grange cut. The Cab & Shiraz are very well balanced. Less sweet than the Bin 28 tasted just before it. Blackberry, cherry, plum, a hint of coco nibs & spice. (4622 views) | | | Tasted by VinVegard on 2/4/2023 & rated 92 points: Penfold 389
Mørk rød, blodlik farge , lilla skjær
Lukt rød frukt, fat, skog, litt få aromaer her? Vinen er noe kjølig.
Syrlig fruktig inngang, stor smak av skogsbær, kirsebær? Skogsbunn , krekling, lyng, bra syre , sterke tanniner som blir bedre etter dekantering, lang ettersmak . Flott vin trenger mat smaker mer enn den lukter!. 92 (4261 views) | | | Tasted by Broderna Dahl on 2/4/2023 & rated 88 points: Mycket och skarpa tanniner. Kommer att bli bättre med åren.
Toppenbra redan nu! Första testet med 3 av bröderna i storegårn 4feb -23. (4589 views) | | | Tasted by F_&_M on 1/27/2023 & rated 90 points: Powerful and punchy but not ready to drink. (3767 views) | | | Tasted by RMWino012 on 1/20/2023 & rated 90 points: Purchased at restaurant, very young wine with limited flavor profile, still rather closed when we drank the remainder of the bottle at home the next day; needs several more years to mature. Will definitely improve with age. (3802 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Campbell Mattinson
The WINEFRONT (7/22/2022)
(Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Halliday
Halliday Wine Companion (7/12/2022)
(Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz South Australia) Subscribe to see review text. | By Richard Hemming MW
JancisRobinson.com (7/5/2022)
(Penfolds, Bin 389 Shiraz/Cabernet South Australia Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By Jancis Robinson, MW
JancisRobinson.com (6/29/2022)
(Penfolds, Bin 389 Cabernet/Shiraz South Australia Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By David Sly
Decanter, Penfolds Collection 2022 (6/7/2022)
(Penfolds, Bin 389 Cabernet-Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, South Australia, Australia, Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Suckling
JamesSuckling.com (6/7/2022)
(Penfolds Cabernet Shiraz South Australia Bin 389 , Australia) Subscribe to see review text. | By Angus Hughson
Vinous, Penfolds Collection 2022 (Jul 2022)
(Penfolds Bin 389 Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By Josh Raynolds
Vinous, South Australia, Victoria and a Bit Beyond (Sep 2022)
(Penfolds Wines Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz Bin 389 Red) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of The WINEFRONT and Halliday Wine Companion and JancisRobinson.com and Decanter and JamesSuckling.com and Vinous. (manage subscription channels) |
| Penfolds Producer website
Producer Cellar Door - Barossa (Google Maps)
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 Bin 389The Rewards of Patience (7th Edition)
Vintage Label Cabernet Shiraz
2010 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 51% 49%
2009 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 51% 49%
2008 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 52% 48%
2007 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 54% 46%
2006 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
2005 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 52% 48%
2004 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 53% 47%
2003 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
2002 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 54% 46%
2001 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
2000 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1999 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1998 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 58% 42%
1997 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1996 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1995 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1994 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1993 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1992 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1991 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 67% 33%
1990 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1989 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1988 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1987 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1986 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 68% 32%
1985 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 52.5% 47.5%
1984 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1983 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1982 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1981 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1980 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1979 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1978 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1977 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1976 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1975 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1974 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1973 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1972 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1971 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1970 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1969 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1968 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1967 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1966 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1965 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1964 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1963 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1962 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1961 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1960 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
1959 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
Cabernet-Shiraz BlendA very popular blend in Australia-particularly from South Australia, where the two varietals work well together. The most famous of these would be the Penfolds Bin 389, considered Australia's most cellared wine. In years gone by this was referred to as "Baby Grange" as some of the wine used barrels from the vintage of Grange.
The 2018 Paternus states only McLaren Vale Shiraz (no Cab Sav).Australia 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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