Penfolds Bin 180 Cabernet Shiraz 2021

The opportunity for Penfolds to create a bold and bombastic blend to commemorate its 180th anniversary must have been tempting, and I love that it chose a very different and compelling path, highlighting not the grandeur of the warmer regions of South Australia in new American oak but the definition and tension of Coonawarra in the epic and cool 2021 season, sensitively framed in seasoned French oak. The definitive Australian blend has been recreated here with classic, fine-boned precision, singing with all the lifted brightness of this cool, traditional season. The crunchy redcurrant and blackcurrant fruit of cabernet sauvignon is perfectly integrated with the blackberries of shiraz. Fine-grained, limestone-mineral tannins like only Coonawarra can conjure are perfectly harmonised with the structural support of French oak. The result is one of the finest wines of the modern era of Penfolds and the epitome and exemplar that less is indeed oh so much more.

Very deep, dense purple-red colour; the bouquet wonderfully clear, deep cassis cabernet, bell-clear and unencumbered by new oak. Traces of nutmeg and violet, lavender and rose. Extreme intensity of flavour, the concentration is other-worldly. A great wine! (57% cabernet, 43% shiraz, from Penfolds vineyard blocks 10 & 5. 16 months in French oak hogsheads, all one year old and none new.

This wine did not see any new oak, glory be. It was though matured in 100% one-year-old oak (i.e. essentially new, but just old enough to make a positive difference). Minty, long and lingering, bold-fruited but elegant, strung suitably with tannin, the styling classic, the quality likewise. This is an exquisite red wine. Red, blue and black berried fruits run in a constant, irrepressible stream, picking up tannin and momentum as they run, without slowing, through to a finish that is so long, it has a beauty of its own. Call it a commemorative release, or a special bin, the nomenclature doesn’t matter. This is a Coonawarra cabernet-shiraz blend of the highest quality. It doesn’t just express the region; it understands it. They haven’t just made a wine here; they’ve made history.

This wine did not see any new oak, glory be. It was though matured in 100% one-year-old oak (i.e. essentially new, but just old enough to make a positive difference). Minty, long and lingering, bold-fruited but elegant, strung suitably with tannin, the styling classic, the quality likewise. This is an exquisite red wine. Red, blue and black berried fruits run in a constant, irrepressible stream, picking up tannin and momentum as they run, without slowing, through to a finish that is so long, it has a beauty of its own. Call it a commemorative release, or a special bin, the nomenclature doesn’t matter. This is a Coonawarra cabernet-shiraz blend of the highest quality. It doesn’t just express the region; it understands it. They haven’t just made a wine here; they’ve made history.