2021 Penfolds, Bin 180 Cabernet Shiraz, Coonawarra, South Australia
Critics reviews
14.5% alcohol, sealed under natural cork.
The 2021 Bin 180 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz comprises 57% Cabernet Sauvignon from Penfolds Block 10 and 43% Shiraz from Block 5, planted in the 1960s, and both components matured in one-year-old French oak. The wine is powerful, concentrated and tannic but lighter in the frame than many of the other premium Penfolds reds, sitting on the plump end of the middleweight register.
If it was a middleweight boxer, it would be pushing heavyweight but just scraping through the weigh-in. Far from being chunky, as my description may indicate, this is fine, pliable, complex, and succulent; the tannins dovetail neatly through the finish and hold the fruit throughout the closing act. This is very impressive, elegant, excellent.
Drink 2024 - 2051
Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate (July 2024)
Dark purple. Rich and pretty glorious. Nicely integrated with refinement. Slightly inky, sudden end. Extremely youthful. Clearly designed for collectors’ cellars.
Drink 2027 - 2047
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (July 2024)
57% Cabernet Sauvignon and 43% Shiraz. All used French oak.
Blackcurrants, spearmint and some graphite. It's very subtle on the nose. Medium-bodied with creamy and polished tannins and a long and vivid finish. Very polished and beautiful. This is a one-off for now from top parcels in Coonawarra that usually go into 707 and Grange. Lovely now.
Drink or hold
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (July 2024)
Having resisted the urge to supercharge Penfolds’ 180th-anniversary special release, the resulting wine is an outstanding example of heady flavours in perfect balance and harmony. Fruit selections from the outstanding 2021 Coonawarra vintage were very specific, with 57% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from Block 10 and 43% Shiraz sourced from Block 5 on Penfolds’ Coonawarra vineyards.
The perfume is extraordinary, a heady lift of mulberry, cassis and red earth. The palate slides like a plush red velvet drape as the tingle of sharp Cabernet tannins carries the flavours through an extraordinarily long palate journey. While it’s immediately enticing, it’s also clear that its full glories won’t unfurl for years to come.
Drink 2024 - 2050
David Sly, Decanter.com (July 2024)
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.
Coonawarra
Coonawarra is a famous wine region located on South Australia's Limestone Coast, an hour's drive (37 miles) east from the ocean. Populated by Scottish and Irish immigrants during the mid-19th century, it was John Riddoch's love of horticulture that led him to set up a fruit farm on the terra rossa soils of Katnook, later renamed as Coonawarra in 1897.
Although Riddoch managed to plant vines and make wine before his death in 1901, it wasn't until the 1950s that the Wynn family relaunched the Coonawarra name with the purchase of his winery. A trickle of corporate investment then followed (ie Mildara), before turning into a flood during the 1960s and 1970s. Now approximately 4,000 hectares, the controversial Coonawarra Geographical Indication zone encompasses prized terra rossa soils (free-draining red loam over limestone over an aquifer), as well as not-so-noble turf consisting of red, sandy, brown loam and poorly-drained black loam.A low-lying cool area with a Mediterranean climate, it has moderate, relative humidity (49 percent); at 59 metres, it has a similar altitude to the Médoc (47m), is drier and 10 percent cooler – probably due to the notable cloud-cover during the key months. Non-detail/hedge pruning shapes the vineyards, resulting in large canopies and relatively high-pH juice. Cabernet Sauvignon is king, blended with Merlot matured in American oak with the capacity to age for up to 10 years.
Recommended Producers: Wynns, Coonawarra, Bowen Estate
Shiraz & Cabernet Sauvignon
Shiraz/Cabernet (or Cabernet/Shiraz, depending on which is the dominant variety) can be described as Australia's archetypal red wine blend. The blend can trace its roots back to 1865, when the famous Dr Guyot recommended it for the sunbaked vineyards of Provence. It became popular in the early 1960s and 1970s and came about largely due to the high demand for red wines and that fact there there was not enough Cabernet Sauvignon to meet this. At this time Shiraz was widely regarded as inferior to Cabernet Sauvignon and was still being grubbed up in Australian vineyards up until the mid 1980s.
The fleshiness and richness of Australian Shiraz acts as perfect foil for the more tannic and angular Cabernet Sauvignon and the blend is often matured in American oak, which adds notes of vanilla and spice. The proportions in the blend vary from 50/50 to 80/20 in some cases. It is seen across the whole quality spectrum in Australia and the blend is now been used in Languedoc Roussillon in France as well as in South Africa and California.
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Description
For 180 years, Penfolds has crafted some of the finest wines in Australia. The winery is well-known for its masterful blends, which are consistently impressive. In honour of this milestone anniversary, Penfolds has released the latest, equally iconic, feather in its cap: the Bin 180 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz. Crafted from some of their oldest and most iconic plantings—usually reserved for its flagship, Grange—this wine brings together power, richness, and silky fruit from Australia’s outstanding 2021 vintage.
Tasting note
Having resisted the urge to supercharge Penfolds’ 180th-anniversary special release, the resulting wine is an outstanding example of heady flavours in perfect balance and harmony. Fruit selections from the outstanding 2021 Coonawarra vintage were very specific, with 57% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from Block 10 and 43% Shiraz sourced from Block 5 on Penfolds’ Coonawarra vineyards.
The perfume is extraordinary, a heady lift of mulberry, cassis and red earth. The palate slides like a plush red velvet drape as the tingle of sharp Cabernet tannins carries the flavours through an extraordinarily long palate journey. While it’s immediately enticing, it’s also clear that its full glories won’t unfurl for years to come.
Drink 2024 - 2050
David Sly, Decanter.com (July 2024)
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