2011 Penfolds, St Henri Shiraz, Australia

2011 Penfolds, St Henri Shiraz, Australia

Product: 20118007847
Prices start from £450.00 per case Buying options
2011 Penfolds, St Henri Shiraz, Australia

Buying options

Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
Case format
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6 x 75cl bottle
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Description

The 2011 St Henri has fruit from three sites; McLaren vale, Barossa Valley and the Adelaide Hills. This is always the least oaked of the reserve reds, spending 12 months in 50+ year old large oak vats. This lets the pure character of the Shiraz fruit shine through and the nose offers up velvety black fruit and spicy black pepper notes. It's so easy to drink on the palate with hints of black berry fruit, cream and spice all wrapped up in a beautifully judged structure with crisp acidity and fine fruit tannins. Not the biggest wine in the range by any means, but undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable to drink now and over the next decade or two.
Chris Pollington - Private Account Manager

wine at a glance

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate90+/100
Made with fruit sourced from McLaren Vale, Barossa and Adelaide Hills and aged 12 months in large, old oak barrels, the deep garnet-purple colored 2011 St. Henri Shiraz puts forward quite a peppery, meaty and earthy nose enveloping a good core of fresh cassis, mulberries and warm plums plus a touch of cinnamon. A little earthy, lean and woody in the mouth and framed by medium levels of chewy tannin, it is still tight though finishes long. This was a tough vintage compared to 2010 and it shows in this wine.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown - 31/10/2014 Read more
Other18
‘Dear St. Henri, You know how much I love you, but I think that we are going through a difficult patch right now and I need a year off. It’s not me, it’s you.’ After the monumental 2010 vintage anything was going to pale, but 2011 is a tricky vintage and while this is a good, chunky, old-style St. Henri, true to the Penfolds recipe, it is not quite as packed with fruit nor as long on the finish as I had hoped for. There is exuberance here, but the obvious agricultural notes and grainy edges detract from the whole. Having said this, 2011 St. Henri is still a genuine slice of Australiana. I never thought I would say this, but the self-imposed St. Henri old oak rule has held this wine back. Everyone needs a break sometime – I will see you in twelve months time for the launch of the 2012!
Matthew Jukes - matthewjukes.com - October 2014 Read more

About this WINE

Penfolds

Penfolds

Penfolds enjoys an iconic status that few New World producers have achieved. Established in 1844 at the Magill Estate near Adelaide, it laid the foundation for fine wine production in Australia.

The winemaking team is led by the masterful Peter Gago; it has the herculean task of blending the best wines from a multitude of different plots, vineyards and regions to create a consistent and outstanding range of wines. Its flagship wine, Grange, is firmly established as one of the finest red wines in the world.

Under Gago’s stewardship, the Penfolds range has evolved over time. Winemaking has moved away from New World heat and the sort of larger-than-life style that can mask individuality; the contemporary wines instead favour fine balance and typicity for the region or grape.

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Barossa Valley

Barossa Valley

Barossa Valley is the South Australia's wine industry's birthplace. Currently into its fifth generation, it dates back to 1839 when George Fife Angas’ South Australian Company purchased 28,000 acres at a £1 per acre and sold them onto landed gentry, mostly German Lutherans. The first vines were planted in 1843 in Bethany, and by the 1870s – with Europe ravaged by war and Phylloxera - Gladstone’s British government complemented its colonies with preferential duties.

Fortified wines, strong enough to survive the 20,000km journey, flooded the British market. Churchill followed, between the Wars, re-affirming Australia’s position as a leading supplier of ‘Empire wines’. After the Second World War, mass European immigration saw a move to lighter wines, as confirmed by Grange Hermitage’s creation during the 1950s. Stainless-steel vats and refrigeration improved the quality of the dry table wines on offer, with table wine consumption exceeding fortified for the first time in 1970.

Averaging 200 to 400 metres’ altitude, the region covers 6,500 hectares of mainly terra rossa loam over limestone, as well as some warmer, sandier sites – the Cambrian limestone being far more visible along the eastern boundary (the Barossa Ranges) with Eden Valley. Following a diagonal shape, Lyndoch at the southern end nearest Gulf St Vincent is the region’s coolest spot, benefiting from sea fogs, while Nuriootpa (further north) is warmer; hot northerlies can be offset by sea breezes. The region is also home to the country’s largest concentration of 100-year-old-vine ShirazGrenache and Mourvedre.

Barossa Valley Shiraz is one of the country’s most identifiable and famous red wine styles, produced to a high quality by the likes of Rockford, Elderton, Torbreck and Dean Hewitson. Grenache and Mourvèdre are two of the region’s hidden gems, often blended with Shiraz, yet occasionally released as single vineyard styles such as Hewitson’s ‘Old Garden’, whose vines date back to 1853. Cabernet Sauvignon is a less highly-regarded cultivar.

Wines are traditionally vinified in open concrete fermenters before being cleaned up and finished in American and French oak barrels or ‘puncheons’ of approximately 600 litres. Barossa Shiraz should be rich, spicy and suave, with hints of leather and pepper.

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Syrah/Shiraz

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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