August 25, 2023 - 20 years young. Rich berry colour and flavour. Clean cork, easily pulled. Delicious.
November 9, 2022 - Nearly 20 years old, and delicious.
April 1, 2022 - Still drinking great. Plenty of life in the old girl still!
December 25, 2021 - Still strong and good complexity
June 14, 2020 - Super soft, great fruit, peppery notes. Superb shiraz, is not getting any better but holding strong for its age.
February 27, 2020 - Purple color. Saturated black currant flavors with cedar and clove spice.
December 26, 2019 - Still drinking well
February 2, 2019 - Dark, saturated blackish red color, just a touch of bricking at the edge.
On the nose the typical sweet smell of Shiraz, quite powerful, a one-tone-note which has a certain allure...
On the palate a bit mono-chromatic; also: the wine borders the jammy side. It is sweeter than it used to be and I think that Penfolds fell for the "allure" of early 2000's fashion: over-concentrating the fruit and placing an emphasis on ripeness and sweetness .
This was border-line for me; my wife quite enjoyed it. I think that, lamentably, with Penfolds going over to the other side, another bastion of conservative wine-making, driving for elegance rather than power, has fallen.
Such a pity....
October 13, 2017 - Last bottle. Sweet spicy fruit, good length, typical Penfolds longevity, great stuff, despite relatively poor vintage.
August 22, 2017 - Consumed for enjoyment only over dinner, no formal notes. This was cellared by me professionally from release. Purchased from Dan Murphy in Payneham for a marvellous $16.90/bottle or thereabout. Drinking very nicely. I don't see a lot more in the future, but no rush to drink.