Critics reviews
Penfolds, arguably Australia’s most famous winery, continues to perform at a high level under the leadership of Head Winemaker, Peter Gago.
(Jay Miller, Wine Advocate, Oct 2007)
About this WINE
Syrah/Shiraz
A noble black grape variety grown particularly in the Northern Rhône where it produces the great red wines of Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and Cornas, and in Australia where it produces wines of startling depth and intensity. Reasonably low yields are a crucial factor for quality as is picking at optimum ripeness. Its heartland, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, consists of 270 hectares of steeply terraced vineyards producing wines that brim with pepper, spices, tar and black treacle when young. After 5-10 years they become smooth and velvety with pronounced fruit characteristics of damsons, raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.
It is now grown extensively in the Southern Rhône where it is blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce the great red wines of Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas amongst others. Its spiritual home in Australia is the Barossa Valley, where there are plantings dating as far back as 1860. Australian Shiraz tends to be sweeter than its Northern Rhône counterpart and the best examples are redolent of new leather, dark chocolate, liquorice, and prunes and display a blackcurrant lusciousness.
South African producers such as Eben Sadie are now producing world- class Shiraz wines that represent astonishing value for money.
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Description
Penfolds Bin 28 is a showcase for warm-climate Australian Shiraz—ripe, robust and generously flavoured. First made in 1959, Bin 28 is named after the famous Barossa Valley Kalimna vineyard purchased by Penfolds in 1945 and from which the wine was originally sourced. Today, Bin 28 is a multi-region, multi-vineyard blend, with the Barossa Valley always well represented.
For the 2009 adequate winter rains across most parts of South Australia gave good soil moisture levels for the start of the season, which was followed by a dry and warm spring. November and December conditions were mild to average, providing good conditions for even ripening. Harvest also continued over a long period optimising colour, flavour and tannin development. The long and late harvest was particularly conducive to excellent flavour development and 2009 proved to be a slightly later vintage compared to the previous couple of years.
Mark Pardoe MW, Wine Director
Once a single-vineyard wine from the Kalimna plot, this wine is now a multi-regional blend with fruit drawn from MacLaren Vale, Barossa Valley, Padthaway and Langhorne Creek. 2004 was a year in which above-average winter rainfall laid down a good store of water in the vineyard; the early summer was mild but the crucial months of March and April proved extremely hot, resulting here in a wine of great concentration and juicy ripeness. It wears its 14.5% alcohol very well.
The bouquet displays notes of black cherry and plum with some lifted, spicy characteristics, overlaid with a typical Australian nose of mint and eucalyptus. On the palate blackberry and, again, black cherry predominate; the texture is soft and luxurious on the palate and the tannins well-managed and silky. Impressively long on the finish. Already mature but showing no signs of tiring, and indeed seems capable of further development in bottle for at least 2 more years.
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