Wednesday Wines – Episode 274 – The Penfolds Collection Embargoed until midnight 24th July BST
(Tasted on 23rd June 2025, with Peter Gago, Penfolds Chief Winemaker, wine writers Jancis Robinson OBE MW & Nina Caplan, and Lucy Richardson, Penfolds Senior PR Manager, AND three of the missing wines from the first tasting were sent to me a week later to complete the set.)
WHITES
2025 Penfolds, Bin 51 Eden Valley Riesling, South Australia ($45 AUD Penfolds Cellar Door)
(10.5% alc; Stainless steel)
This is a fabulous Bin 51. It is pin-sharp, with pristine notes of elderflower, lime pith, and white tea over a super-lean, bright, and refreshing palate. Pure, stunning, and immediately pleasing, while many at Penfolds will ask you to cellar this wine to allow it to reach its full potential, I think it is best enjoyed the moment it comes into your possession. 18/20
2024 Penfolds, Bin 311 Chardonnay, Australia (£32, available in the UK from 20th September)
(52% Adelaide Hills, balance from Tasmania & Tumbarumba; 13% alc.; 8 months in French oak barriques, 18% new)
Clean, pure, and true to the Bin 311 model, this is a slender wine with gorgeous notes of almonds and white flowers over a formal citrus core, and it has a more succulent mid-palate than some of the edgier recent vintages. Drawn from cool climate parcels, including fruit from a new property in Tasmania, this is a delightful Bin 311, and it hits the nail on the head. This is about as crowd-pleasing as Aussie Chardonnay gets, and this remains one of the bargain-priced wines in the collection. 18/20
2023 Penfolds, Reserve Bin A Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills, South Australia (£70, available in the UK from 20th September)
(12.5% alc.; 8 months in French oak barriques, 50% new, 20% one-year-old)
Reserve Bin A is often lavishly upholstered and blushingly indulgent, and I must admit I adore these wines, often as much and sometimes more than Yattarna. However, that doesn’t mean that the firmer, more sculptural vintages don’t float my boat! 2023 is such a year, and you are immediately rewarded with a stunningly long, rakishly lean spine of mouth-watering acidity enrobed with weightless, limber, lime, honeysuckle and green tea notes. This is a 1970s Chassagne-shaped wine, and it is glorious. It shows fabulous balance from the off, and the brightness of fruit and shivery energy in every sip is terrific. 19/20
2023 Penfolds, Bin 144 Yattarna Chardonnay, Australia (£135, via La Place de Bordeaux, and available in the UK from 8th September)
(65% Tumbarumba, balance from Adelaide Hills & Tasmania; 12.5% alc.; 8 months in French oak barriques, 60% new, 40% one-year-old)
And just like buses, the second ‘grand cru’ Penfolds Chardonnay is another refined, athletic, and extraordinarily well-toned wine. This time, however, as is Yattarna’s manner, this is a much more introverted and reserved wine. While Mr Gago served it at the same temperature as Reserve Bin A, it felt cooler, more high-tensile, and certainly much more challenging. While Reserve Bin A felt like it was modelled on a silky Côte d’Or template, this wine comes from the region an hour and a half away up the A6. And while the greatest Chablis I have ever tasted have a singularity and persistence about them that typifies their single vineyard origins, this blended wine seems like a, some might say, heretical amalgam of all seven Grands Crus. It is expansive and resonant, pulsing with spectacular fruit. I know many will prefer Bin A for the first three or four years, but from the turn of the decade, Yattarna will glide away into the sunset! 19+/20
REDS
2022 Penfolds, FWT 543, Vin de France (£65, available in the UK from 20th September)
(52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 48% Syrah; 14% alc.; 12 months in French oak, 16% new and American barriques, 25% new)
This French Winemaking Trial is a Bordeaux, Rhône and Languedoc triumvirate made and bottled at Château Cambon La Pelouse in Margaux. It is smooth, velvety and spicy, with a lovely tannin structure and a curious sense of immediacy. While it is not the most complex Cab/Syrah in the Penfolds arsenal, it is undoubtedly a decent stab at a French Bin 389, with a more approachable, open, and less urgent framework. 17.5/20
2022 Penfolds, FWT 585, Vin de France (£65, available in the UK from 20th September)
(56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 41% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot; 14% alc.; 12 months in a combination of French oak, 67% new and American oak, 33% new barriques)
This wine is sourced from vineyards across Bordeaux, and it is a ripe style with decent, open fruit, attractive, fine-grained tannins and an even, balanced palate. The fruit integration is already complete, and while it does not fire up my senses in the same way my favourite Châteaux do, it is a professional wine with gloss, charm, and an innate sense of who it is and where it is going. I suspect there is much more to come from this project, assuming the trial continues. 17.5/20
2023 Penfolds, Bin 521 CWT, China ($150 AUD Penfolds Cellar Door)
(89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Marselan; 14.5% alc.; 13 months in 24% new French & American hogsheads)
This is the third vintage of this wine, and it is part made from grapes harvested at 2200m, in the foothills of the Himalayas. This Shangri-La Cabernet Sauvignon is blended with Marselan (a Cabernet/Grenache cross) from Ningxia. The resulting wine is then made in the Shangri-La winery. The 2021 was made from 18% Marselan, the 2022 was 23% and you will see this wine has dipped down to 11%. This is the first time I have tasted this Chinese Wine Trial, so I cannot pinpoint the guilty party, but I suspect it is the Marselan. There is a nagging sense of funk here that is irritating and obstructive. It is not as easy as putting it down to Brett. That would be lazy and most likely inaccurate. The Penfolds people can pick up brett from a mile off, so that’s why I am not falling into this trap. But there is a funk that festers in my nostrils, reminding me of the mousiness of Brett, and when combined with mocha and leather tones, this is not a wine I find particularly pleasant. I look forward to tracking the progress of the fourth vintage next year. My note might make more sense! 16+?/20
2022 Penfolds, Bin 704 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, California (£60, available in the UK from 20th September)
(14.5% alc.; 16 months in French oak barriques, 45% new)
It is interesting how Bin 704 manages to be so precocious, given its relatively young age. This is a pure, relevant and accurate wine with a fascinating, magnetic palate, crammed with medium-weight, red fruit tones, a floral stance on the nose and a bright, almost minty finish. I was expecting a much darker and more tannic style, so the creamy, plummy stance and chalky finish are uplifting and rather refreshing, and for this reason, I heartily commend it to you. Given the price, this is a fabulous Napa red, and you don’t even need a decanter to give it a whirl. 17.5/20
2022 Penfolds, Bin 149 Napa Valley / South Australia (£160, available in the UK from 20th September)
(93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc from Howell Mountain; 88% Napa Valley, 12% South Australia; 14.5% alc.; 16 months in French oak, 75% new and American oak, 25% new barriques)
You must factor in the airfare for Bin 149, which significantly increases the price of this wine. Having said this, the fruit quality is superb, and it is clear that the addition of graphite-soaked Howell Mountain Cabernet Franc, coupled with the tweak of elite South Aussie Cab, which signs Bin 149 with an indelible Penfolds signature, all conspire to make this a fabulous wine. By contrast to the red-fruited Bin 704, this is a dark, succulent, spicy fellow, with a wild, raw, and earthy edge that flicks your synapses on and off with astounding frequency. While this is a stylish wine, it is not as hot, oaky or alcoholic as many sought-after Napa wines, and for this reason, I am extremely impressed, and there is more to come in time. 18.5+/20
2023 Penfolds, Bin 28 Shiraz, South Australia (£30, available in the UK from 20th September)
(42% Barossa Valley, 27% McLaren Vale, Padthaway; 14.5% alc.; 12 months in American oak hogsheads, 15% new)
With 15% new oak, this is more adroit Bin 28 than of late, and while it sports a dinner jacket, you need not worry because there is a pair of familiar dungarees beneath the formal exterior. While the tannins are slightly firmer than in the last few releases, the fruit is subtle, layered, and enticing. Bin 28 has such a loyal following around the world that it might mean people drink this wine with their brains in neutral, letting the familiar fruit wash over their taste buds unhindered. However, I am certain that this vintage will have these fans sitting up straight and paying attention. 2023 Bin 28 is a resounding success, and at thirty quid, it sings a crystal clear Penfolds song that will act as a siren call for lifelong acolytes and newbies alike. 18/20
2023 Penfolds, Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon, South Australia (£75, available in the UK from 20th September)
(30% Padthaway, with the balance from Coonawarra, McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley & Wrattonbully; 14.5% alc.; 12 months in French oak, 21% new, and American oak hogsheads, 11% new)
There was no Bin 169 (the Coonawarra Cab), and there is no Coonawarra Cabernet component in Bin 707’s make-up in 2023. The result is a much weaker Cabernet harvest than usual. There is a linear, saline feel here, which I often find in wines with a hefty dose of Padthaway fruit. While the perfume is refined and the palate compressed, with a kick of crisp tannin on the finish, there is not sufficient body to bring equilibrium to the whole. While the slight Coonawarra portion waves fleetingly by way of a minty halo on the finish, I cannot summon up much enthusiasm for this wine. 16.5/20
2023 Penfolds, Bin 389 Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz, South Australia (£70, available in the UK from 20th September)
(51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Shiraz; 45% McLaren Vale, Padthaway, Barossa Valley; 14.5% alc.; 12 months in American oak hogsheads, 33% new)
This is a storming vintage for Penfolds’ The Great Australian Red blend. With spectacular balance and intrinsic fruit harmony, this is an uncommonly precocious wine, and while it is glowering and dark, the tannins are genteel and toothsome. There is a perfect counterpoint between depth, accuracy, and juiciness, making this a fascinating, highly desirable, and delicious Bin 389. 18.5/20
2023 Penfolds, Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz, South Australia (£43, available in the UK from 20th September)
(14.5% alc.; 12 months in French oak hogsheads, 26% new, 39% one-year-old)
While Coonawarra’s Cabernet harvest in 2023 was well below par, Shiraz appears to have fared extremely well. Bin 128 is a perfect case in point, with a lovely, peppery, red-fruited whoosh of flavour that gives it a refreshing Northern Rhône twist. The French oak élévage heightens the spiciness, making Bin 128 a real treat!! Super-clean, vitally pure and downright delicious, this is a little star. 18/20
2024 Penfolds, Bin 21 Grenache, Barossa Valley, South Australia ($60 AUD Penfolds Cellar Door)
(14.5% alc.; 10 months in French oak, 17% new, 69% seasoned and American oak, 14% seasoned)
Penfolds has raised its Grenache game of late in concert with a host of other top-flight Aussie estates, and the result is a lovely, bright, Pinot-y wine with more overt succulence and immediacy than many. At the tender age of one year old (and a handful of months), this wine is already drinking well with forward, clean PYO notes and a generous midriff of pliable mulberry and rhubarb tones. I encourage you to drink it at ‘cellar temperature’, when the acidity and fruit will hit the bullseye of balance. 17.5/20
2023 Penfolds, Bin 138 Grenache Shiraz Mataro, Barossa Valley, South Australia (£35, available in the UK from 20th September)
(56% Grenache, 38% Shiraz, 6% Mataro; 14.5% alc.; 12 months in seasoned French and American hogsheads)
Bin 138 often appears in this illustrious line-up of starry wines like an unloved nephew. This remains true in 2023. I understand that GSMs are an important category of wines in the Australian firmament, but this recipe is not one Penfolds has ever perfected. Clumsy, straightforward and blocky, this wine needs time to get its ducks in a row, as the tannins and fruit are completely out of whack. In a head-to-head with Bin 28 (its slightly less expensive portfolio pal), the Shiraz walks away resplendent, leaving Bin 138 scratching its head. This is the only wine in the collection that does not bear the Penfolds name in its flavour. Perhaps its time will come, but many less expensive Barossa GSMs put this wine in the shade. 16.5+/20
2023 Penfolds, Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz, Barossa Valley, South Australia ($100 AUD Penfolds Cellar Door)
(14.5% alc.; 17 months in French oak, 29% one-year-old, 25% seasoned, and American oak hogsheads, 26% two-year-old, 20% one-year-old)
You can always rely on Bin 150 to deliver the goods. This wine is emblematic of the vintage with a heightened perfume of Marananga ‘fynbos’, a velvety-smooth demeanour and considerable mid-palate allure. I often find liquorice buried in the heart of Bin 150, and this vintage is no exception. Deliciously forward and ever-so exotic, with rose petal and fig embellishments, this is another supple and purple-fruit-drenched wine, and it will drink well in its youth while motoring on for twenty years without missing a beat. 18.5/20
2023 Penfolds, Magill Estate Shiraz, South Australia 14.5% (£120, available in the UK from 20th September)
(14.5% alc.; 17 months in French oak barriques, 34% new and American oak hogsheads, 33% new)
As always, this wine is aromatically intriguing, and while it bullies the fruit, taking over rather too quickly for my liking, this is a sturdy Magill with square shoulders and grainy tannins. On the palate, there is more traction and tannin, and the oak appears to expand its territory further. There is not much generosity here, or indeed joy, as this wine is clearly built for the long term. While the ingredients are here for success, I cannot fully assimilate them in my mind, so my score reflects this, both in its structure and its longevity. 18+/20
2023 Penfolds, RWT Bin 798 Shiraz, Barossa Valley, South Australia (£125, via La Place de Bordeaux, and available in the UK from 8th September)
(14.5% alc.; 14 months in French hogsheads, 69% new, 31% one-year-old)
The liberal use of French oak complements this wine, and it manages to tame the tannins without overpowering the fruit. RWT oscillates between raucously OTT performances and more measured, stealthy ones. This 2023 is a calm and civilised wine, with impressive depth of flavour and beautiful refinement throughout. Lovers of bigger, more ostentatious wines will perhaps find this a little too composed and demure, with not as much son et lumière as they might be looking for. Conversely, palates seeking detail and sophistication need look no further. 18.5/20
2022 Penfolds, St. Henri Shiraz, South Australia (£95, via La Place de Bordeaux, and available in the UK from 8th September)
(96% Shiraz, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon; Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Padthaway; 14.5 alc.; 14 months in large, seasoned oak vats)
This is an utterly mesmerising St. Henri. It is complete, thrillingly balanced and sumptuously rewarding. It might be the most immediately enjoyable St. Henri of all time! Rich, dark, mellow and superbly well-appointed, this is a crowd-pleaser with little visible astringency or muscle. Instead, this mille-feuille of red, blue, black and purple fruit is sensational, and it will enchant all-comers with its epic allure and precociousness. While we can dive into this pool now, the engine, which purrs away in the core, will keep this wine ticking over for at least three decades. 19/20
2023 Penfolds, Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon, South Australia (£450, via La Place de Bordeaux, and available in the UK from 8th September)
(68% McLaren Vale, 18% Padthaway, 14% Barossa Valley; 14.5% alc.; 18 months in American oak hogsheads, 100% new)
Penfolds has enjoyed an incredible history with its starry Cabernet, with the first vintage of Bin 707 dating back to 1964! Of course, this wine sits in a class of its own, on account of its liberal dunking in spankingly aromatic American oak. While this recipe sometimes jars, particularly in young wines, it occasionally finds harmony within moments of being bottled. 2023 Bin 707 is simply magical with glorious refinement, not least the finish, which is as distinguished as can be! I have never felt this way about a two-year-old sample of this commanding Cabernet before. The balance is head-scratchingly unexpected, yet tremendous. An entire Turkish bazaar of spices invades the senses, while moments of pristine, herbaceous eucalyptus and mint cut through the exoticism, bringing a genuine sense of McLaren Vale’s ozone-misted flora. I mention McLaren Vale because this wine is formulated from over two-thirds of fruit from this idyllic region, and perhaps this is another reason why it is an outlier from the monolithic leviathans that populate Bin 707’s back catalogue. In 2023, this American-oaked wine sits alongside refined Bordeaux and haughty Super-Tuscans, with the fragrant oak adding an intriguing twist. 19+/20
2021 Penfolds, Grange Shiraz, South Australia (£600, via La Place de Bordeaux, and available in the UK from 8th September)
(94% Shiraz, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon; 66% Barossa Valley, 26% McLaren Vale, 8% Clare Valley; 14.5% alc.; 18 months in American hogsheads, 100% new)
This is a spectacular Grange. If I were to jot down my dream recipe for this magnificent wine, it would be as near as dammit to the technical stats above. The epic balance found here was born in this wine, and it shows sensational tenderness and mellifluous energy from the very first molecule that collides with your sensors. Nothing is rushed, there are no raw edges, and there is more immediate control and synergy between the two constituent grapes than I have seen before in a fledgling Grange. There is less malevolence, and more luxury; more velvetiness and sophistication; and a heavenly texture that casts an extraordinary spell on your senses. The result is the most penetrative and resonant perfume I have seen on a young Grange, and it is derived from the sheer quality of fruit and skill employed in its creation. Instead of this wine pushing, like a volcano, from its depths of its flavour chamber towards the open ‘crater’ of the wine glass, it appears to expand in an instant, like a heart-stopping supernova, showering your receptors in unmitigated indulgence. This will go down as another landmark Grange, and yet, having tasted a sublime vertical, later last year, including some 47 vintages as far back as 1952, I have never tasted a Grange with this individuality and presence. 20+/20
AND FINALLY…
2021 La Chapelle Grange / Grange La Chapelle (€2600, not part of the Penfolds Collection, but I tasted this wine for the third time today – Sept 2024, Dec 2024 & June 2025)
Tectonic plates and stellar palates collided in the most exciting wine joint venture of my wine lifetime when winemaker Peter Gago’s Penfolds married his elite Shiraz from iconic Aussie red wine Grange with the Frey family’s legendary Syrah from the monumental Hermitage La Chapelle, in the northern Rhône. A 50/50 blend has been assembled, and it pleases me more than I can say to announce that it is a resounding success. Peter Gago and Caroline Frey are some of the world’s most inspirational and visionary wine folk. With Peter’s restless imagination and Caroline’s unceasing work ethic, perhaps these two extraordinary wine companies were destined to be joined one day, not least because they share an unquenchable passion for the Syrah/Shiraz variety. Yet, it would be too easy to pass this off as a foolish folly or an attention-seeking stunt. Far from it. This project has been plotted with forensic care and attention, and the results are astounding. Three wines have been made as I write this piece, and I have tasted two of them – the 2021 and the 2022 (my notes on the 2022 are embargoed until next year).
What I find compelling about these two bottled wines is that the weld between the two vehicles is invisible. Neither wine seeks to dominate, and neither wine aims to be a ‘starter’ or ‘finisher’ on the palate. Instead, these wines are woven from the finest silk and perfectly intertwined with precisely equal amounts of warp and weft, resulting in a gossamer-smooth creation. While Penfolds Grange sports a mighty 100% new oak and La Chapelle only 20% new carpentry, it is remarkable how much synergy and harmony this wine shows on the nose and palate. Grange’s musculature is tempered by La Chapelle’s profound minerality and silkiness, and the finished wine is gloriously aromatic, plush and infinitely layered. None of the elements overlap, and none of the flavours compete, making the overall experience overwhelmingly civilised and genteel. This dream collaboration has made it appear as though this coming together of flavours was an inevitability, rather than a frivolity, and the perfume and palate of this tremendous red wine bear this out. It is, in truth, a celebration of this noble grape variety like no other. As always, it is easier to find one accurate French word to describe a wine, where many English words would usually have to be deployed, and, on this occasion, I would plump for génial. The 2021 vintage release exhibits a threateningly dark core of fruit that opens on command to reveal stunningly vibrant fruit tones, from purples, garnets, and carmines to deeper sanguineous notes that conspire to create a thrilling vortex of Syrah’s and Shiraz’s finest attributes. The tenderness of La Chapelle and the fruit focus of Grange seem heaven-sent, resulting in a surprisingly forward and graceful amalgam of grandeur and breeding. 19/20 (Drink 2030 – 2040)