2021 Penfolds, Bin 798 RWT Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia
Critics reviews
The 2021 RWT Bin 798 is layered with wheat-y/biscuity oak on the nose with blackberry compote, black earth, black olive tapenade ... black, black, black. Tannic and muscular in the mouth and so much of everything: fruit, oak and tannin.
A dense wine of monstrous proportions, those who love this gritty, hedonistic style will be incandescent with pleasure. Positively glowing. This 2021 RWT is like the heart and soul of the RWT style. Barossa, Barossa, Barossa. Big! Matured for 14 months in French oak (80% new).
Drink now to 2051
Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate (July 2023)
Winter rainfall was 20% below the long-term average, but a wetter-than-average August contributed to soil moisture for the commencement of the growing season. The temperatures from January to March were similar to the long-term average, and conditions were mild over harvest. Aged for 14 months in French oak hogsheads (80% new, 20% one year old). TA 6.5 g/l, pH 3.69.
Very dark. Some subtlety on the nose and palate with an almost Italian tanginess to it. Real energy here. We’re tasting fruit rather than winemaking! Real depth and raciness. Yes!
Drink 2024 - 2042
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (July 2023)
A powerful, extremely exciting wine, framed by an almost impenetrable cladding of oak. And yet the density of the fruit is undeniable, defined by a piercing core of blueberry and kirsch, doused with iodine, beef brisket, anise and a savory sassafras note. There is much, much more sitting in the cradle of youthful inscrutability.
Big and bolshy, forcing its way long by virtue of tenacity of extract and quality of tannins. The sort of tannins that roll through the mouth, eking a journey across every crevice. Really fine tannins. An accomplishment born of an exceptional vintage, quality material and wonderful management. This will age exceptionally well and strikes me as among the very top wines of this new swag of releases.
Ged Goodwin MW, Senior Editor at JamesSuckling.com (July 2023)
The richly endowed 2021 Shiraz Bin 798 RWT delivers in spades with intense and well-defined blackberry, tempered chocolate, black olive and bay leaf aromas. A dense, drying palate follows. Grippy tannins provide a muscular feel through to a heavy set finish. It’s a little adolescent right now and needs time to settle.
Drink 2028 - 2039
Angus Hughson, Vinous.com (July 2023)
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.
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 Shiraz, Grenache 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.
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
Red Wine Trial (affectionately known as RWT) is always a highlight of the Penfolds releases. Possibly the ultimate expression of Barossa Shiraz, this is a big and bold wine. RWT is an explosion of flavour, busting with blackberries, plums, liquorice, and ripe black cherries.
The texture is incredibly silky, with plenty of plush tannins balancing the waves of vanilla and peppering of spice. There is no doubt about it that this is a rich wine, but the balance and structure are such that it doesn’t appear cloying. This will age for at least a decade, if not more.
Drink 2027 - 2035
Henrietta Gullifer, Private Account Manager, Berry Bros. & Rudd (September 2023)
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