2020 Penfolds, Bin 704 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California, USA
Critics reviews
COVID restrictions and wildfires made the 2020 vintage challenging producing small yields, Penfolds report. Aged for 16 months in French oak (40% new) barriques. TA 6.62 g/l, pH 3.63
Lusciously ripe nose. Very sweet and without all that much tannin. There’s none of the leafiness of Cabernet. And a certain rawness plus alcohol on the very sudden finish. In some ways it’s more Australian than California.
Drink 2024 - 2032
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (June 2023)
14.5% alcohol, sealed under natural cork.
The 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 704 is composed of Cabernet Sauvignon from a number of vineyards across Napa Valley. The cassis/raspberry-driven fruit is framed by French oak (40% new) and has a distinct sumac/Cajun spice character through the finish. Ashtray/singed-eucalypt and a certain stickiness to the tannins here provide another angle to close.
Drink 2023 - 2035
Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate (July 2023)
Milk chocolate oak tannins, typically Napa. Red currant, mulberry, anise and a whiff of menthol, the structural latticework an edgy beam across the finish. While this is distinctly full-weighted, it is more savory than most wines from the region due, perhaps, to the challenging vintage conditions and the need for abstemious fruit selection. Handled very well. I like it.
Drink or hold
Ned Goodwin MW, JamesSuckling.com (July 2023)
Penfolds fans know that Bin numbers are not just random digits, but come with a story behind them. Bin 704 was named as it is the reverse, or opposite, of its initial inspiration, Bin 407: both seek to express the character of Cabernet Sauvignon, but one from a single appellation (Napa Valley) and the other from multiple (South Australia). Despite the challenges of the vintage, this is an approachable, fresh, sweetly fruited wine that sings of red and black hedgerow berries, warm slate, violets and vanilla-flecked custard slice. There's ample grip from the fine, cocoa-dust tannins and the oak (16 months in French barriques, 40% new) is well integrated.
Drink now to 2045
Tina Gellie, Decanter (June 2023)
This is a terrific wine. Theoretically, it is an American version of Bin 407, keeping all its Penfolds DNA intact and layering it over Napa Valley Cabernet fruit. It works for me incredibly well. This is a hypnotising wine with all of the wildness and ripeness of the Napa, overlaid with Penfolds extraction, tannin, oak and timbre.
Matthew Jukes, MatthewJukes.com
Super concentrated blueberry and cassis aromas, a different fruit profile here; dense and full-bodied, elegantly structured and very firm with fine-grained, powdery tannins and tremendous persistence. A cracking cabernet.
Drink 2026 - 2043
Huon Hooke, TheRealReview.com
About this WINE
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.
Napa Valley
North Coast's Napa Valley is California's most famous viticultural area (AVA), claiming some of the most expensive agricultural land in the world and producing wines of ‘cult’ status.
Its 16,000 ha of vines lie over a strip (40 miles long-5 miles wide) of diverse soils (clay, gravely, volcanic), with its northernmost end on the side of Mountain Helena and its foot in San Francisco Bay. The valley is framed by two mountains ranges Vaca (to the north) and Mayacamas (to the south), yet the main climatic influence is the cool wind and fog that is sucked in from San Pablo Bay during the afternoon, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and evenly.
The area enjoys a variety of unique microclimates, as temperatures can vary dramatically as much as 15 degrees, from the north to the south end of the valley. These differences have led to the creation of several sub-AVAs (14 in total) including:
Atlas Peak, Chiles Valley District, Diamond Mountain District, Howell Mountain, Los Carneros, Mt. Veeder, Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena, Spring Mountain District, Stags Leap District, Yountville, Wild Horse Valley and Oak Knoll District. The Calistoga AVA is still pending approval.
Both the “Napa Valley” designation and the sub-AVA name must appear on the wine label simultaneously, with the exception of wines from the Carneros AVA, which is shared between the Napa Valley and the Sonoma County.
Cabernet Sauvignon is the undisputed king of Napa grapes, occupying over 45% of the vineyard acreage, followed by (predominantly) Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Zinfandel, Merlot, Cab. Franc and to a lesser extent Petite Sirah, Sangiovese, Barbera, Dolcetto.
Recommended Producers
Frog's Leap, Dominus, David Ramey, Viader, Stag's Leap Cellars, Paras Vineyards, Heitz.
Cabernet Sauvignon
The most famous red wine grape in the world and one of the most widely planted.
It is adaptable to a wide range of soils, although it performs particularly well on well-drained, low-fertile soils. It has small, dusty, black-blue berries with thick skins that produce deeply coloured, full-bodied wines with notable tannins. Its spiritual home is the Médoc and Graves regions of Bordeaux where it thrives on the well-drained gravel-rich soils producing tannic wines with piercing blackcurrant fruits that develop complex cedarwood and cigar box nuances when fully mature.
The grape is widely planted in California where Cabernet Sauvignon based wines are distinguished by their rich mixture of cassis, mint, eucalyptus and vanilla oak. It is planted across Australia and with particular success in Coonawarra where it is suited to the famed Terra Rossa soil. In Italy barrique aged Cabernet Sauvignon is a key component in Super Tuscans such as Tignanello and Sassicaia, either on its own or as part of a blend with Sangiovese.
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Description
The 2020 Bin 704 is a delightful expression of Cabernet Sauvignon, exuding complex aromas of violets, blueberry and exotic spices on the nose. The palate is rich and effusive with deep layers of mocha, dark raspberry jam and cassis, alongside hints of leather and clove. It’s elegantly structured, with fine grained tannins and an incredibly persistent finish. Drinking very well now but will cellar for 10+ years.
Drink 2024 - 2035
Hugo Dale, Account Manager, Berry Bros. & Rudd (April 2024)
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