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Penfolds Luxury & Icon range: tasting notes
The new vintages of Penfold’s Australian Luxury & Icon range will be distributed exclusively across EMEA by a select group of Negociants in the La Place de Bordeaux network, managed by the courtier, Excellence Vins. The new Penfolds releases will launch on La Place de Bordeaux on 9 September and will be supported all year round by Penfolds marketing activation throughout the EMEA region. db’s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay gives his verdict.
The new vintage releases to be distributed exclusively across EMEA by La Place de Bordeaux include:
- 2020 Grange
- 2022 Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon
- 2023 Bin 144 Yattarna Chardonnay
- 2022 Bin 798 RWT Shiraz
- 2021 St Henri
- 2022 Bin 169 Cabernet Sauvignon
The remaining wines in the Penfolds 2024 Collection sold in Europe, the Middle East and Africa will be available through Penfolds other distribution partners in the region from 1 August. Penfolds will continue to work closely with these partners with brand-building marketing activity taking place throughout the year across the entire Penfolds portfolio, including its popular Australian Bin wines, such as Bin 389, Bin 28 and Bin 311, as well as the French and Californian Collections.
Tasting notes
*St Henri Shiraz 2021 (100% Shiraz; sourced from Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale; aged for 12 months in large already used foudres; pH 3.72; 14.5% alcohol). Ultra-spicy and with a lovely fresh green peppercorn note. Dark berry and stone fruit. Eucalyptus. Menthol. Wild herbs. Hoisin. Liquorice. There’s a lovely tactile sense of tannic grip and then a release of sapid, juicy fruit. Then it grips again as the fine-grained but considerable tannins build once more. Impressively structured. Very long. Made to go the distance. 95. RRP: £110.
*Red Wine Trial Bin 798 Barossa Valley Shiraz 2022 (100% Barossa Valley Shiraz; aged for 14 months in hogsheads of French oak, 67% of which are new; pH 3.71; 14.5% alcohol). More floral. Pretty. Black pen ink. Peony. Chocolate ganache. Beautifully limpid in texture. Crystalline. Fluid. Cool. Impressive. Sapid on the finish. More approachable at this stage than the more austere and less expressive Bin 707, but with a similar aging potential. 96. RRP: £145.
*Bin 169 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 (100% Cabernet Sauvignon; the fruit sourced entirely from Coonawarra; aged for 16 months in hogsheads of French oak, 83% of which are new; pH 3.62; 14.5% alcohol). Fresh oak. Lithe, limpid and sumptuous with a more crystalline and spherical core than the other wines tasted thus far. Fluid, despite the density and concentration. Camphor. Liquorice. A hint of firework. Candlewax. Restraint. Lots of freshness presented very vertically on the finish, almost like fresh fire hydrants of fresh juiciness directed outwards from the dense core. Particularly impressive in this vintage. 96. RRP: £160.
*Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 (100% Cabernet Sauvignon; the fruit sourced from Coonawarra, Barossa Valley, Padthaway and Wrattonbully; pH 3.66; aged 18 months in new American oak hogsheads; 14.5% alcohol). A little oxidative in style at first. 100 per cent new oak and it shows. Rich, deep, quite spicy and with a touch of natural sucrosity. Dark chocolate. Tactile, lithe, limpid and increasingly fresh as it stretches itself out over the palate. More impressive in the mouth, above all texturally, than aromatically at this stage. Long and gently tapering to a distant horizon on the finish. 96. RRP: £525.
*Grange Shiraz 2020 (97% Shiraz and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon; sourced from McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley and Clare Valley; pH: 3.61; aged for 20 months in new American oak hogsheads; 14.5% alcohol). Elegant and delicate, yet complex and very aromatically expressive and engaging. Yet at the same time it feels intimate and intense, drawing you in. Bulby. Bloomy. A lovely note of Iris. Assorted parfumier’s essences. Blood orange. Chocolate ganache Plush and plump and very dynamic in and through the mid-palate. Delicate and refined despite the considerable power, compactness and concentration. Ethereal. Substantial on the finish and very gathered – you don’t notice the power until the finish. What a crescendo. 98+. RRP: £600.
*Yattarna Bin 144 Chardonnay 2022 (100% Chardonnay; the fruit sourced from Tumbarumba, Tasmania and Adelaide Hills; pH 3.11; barrel fermented and aged for 8 months in French oak barrels, 44% of which were new; 12.5% alcohol). The 28th vintage of this, Penfolds’ increasingly iconic Chardonnay, made with precisely the same attention to detail and vineyard and parcel selection process as Grange. A fabulous follow-up to the sublime 2021. There are 2023 bottles; this is number 2. Aromatically beautiful and sublime in its complexity, each return to the glass revealing new elements. Lime and lime zest, grapefruit and fennel seed, hay, tarte au citron and lemon sorbet. A little white floral note. Elderflower. Lily of the valley. Much more limpid still, than Bin 311 or Reserve Black A. Fluid. Lithe. Fleshy but hyper-crystalline. On the palate, this is so tight and precise, highly structured and very focussed, rapier-like. I love the little touch of iodine and oyster shell that I’ve noticed before with Yattarna, a hint of white pepper too. Very refined, almost delicate. Gorgeous texturally and wonderfully tactile, with a playful and captivating acidity. This tapers gently on the finish with each grip of the acidity, supported by a gentle hint of tannin, releasing plumes of sapid juiciness. The top white here by some distance, but an Everest amongst Himalayan peaks. 98. RRP: £135.