2005 Australia

"Just a barrel or two are made in truly exceptional years, that's only when the Merlot in the original vineyard  has achieved perfect ripeness. Always a densely structured wine when young, that gives nothing away. It comes spectacularly to life after around 8-10 years in bottle and continues to open out with time. I recently sampled the 1992 vintage and it was stunning, revealing mulberry and plum notes with an exotic, spicy edge. New World's answer to Le Pin?!"
Hong Kong Fine Wine Team

This has the typical Yarra Yering `Old World' crushed leaf Cabernet Sauvignon character along with sleek cassis fruit and generous plumpness derived from the Merlot and Malbec. This will drink well for at least 20 years and will make for an interesting comparison to top 2005 Clarets in the future.

Purple-colored, it emits an alluring fragrance of smoky oak, toast, vanilla, pencil lead, olives, black currant, and blackberry liqueur....Impressively balanced, all components are well-integrated, and the finish lasts for 60 seconds.
Jay Miller - Wine Advocate - Oct-2007

Our initial tasting note contains the word ‘incredible’ four times – normally that might be seen as overdoing it, but it probably does stack up in the case of this wine. 97% Shiraz and 3% Viognier taken from vines between 120 and 160 years old, the stage is set for a very special experience. Often favourably tasted alongside great Rhône wines, specifically the more serious single-vineyard Côte-Rôties, this has a very exotic nose with layer upon layer of nuance, and an enormous (but not overdone) mouthfeel.

The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon “Ashmead” is sourced from 70-year-old vines yielding a microscopic 0.5 tons per acre. The wine was aged for 18 months in 100% new French hogsheads (300 liter barrels). Purple in color, this sensational Cabernet has a splendid nose of pain grille, graphite, leather, black currant, and blackberry liqueur. Full-bodied and voluptuous with hidden tannins, this beautifully balanced wine will develop with 8-10 years in the cellar and drink well through 2035. 
Jay S Miller - Wine Advocate - eRobertParker.com - Nov 2015

I am seduced by this benchmark example of dry Australian Semillon. Quality such as this is very hard to find in the UK so here you will imbibe a real treasure for your senses. The nose has aromas of white candlewax with cascades of orange blossom. Over time this will develop even more as witnessed in the 2003 vintage.

The palate is unctuous whilst still being refreshing and certainly mouth-filling, with a tiny hint of butter. Terrific structure and balance. Perfect either for chicken dishes in rich sauces such as mushroom, or to contrast with highly aromatic and spicy flavoured salads.
Rebecca Lamont, Head of Wine School, February 2013

No one else makes dry Semillon like they do in the Hunter Valley. With the advantage of some of the world’s oldest vines and a unique climate (warm but cloudy) which allows the grapes to reach full flavour ripeness at only 11-12% potential alcohol, these wines are austere and closed in their youth, yet over the course of 1-2 decades they develop astonishingly. Complex flavours of toast and butter belie the wines’ 100% stainless steel fermentation and ageing, and nowhere is the ‘waxy’ and ‘lanolin’ character of the Semillon grape more obviously evidenced. A truly world-class and unique wine style.

Giaconda Vineyard was established by Rick Kinzbrunner, a mechanical engineer who became interested in wine in the early 1970s and spent the next 10 years traveling to wine-growing areas overseas learning as much as possible. Rick was the first to establish a vineyard of any consequence in Beechworth when he planted in 1982. Now there is a real buzz for the region while his wines are counted among Australia’s very finest. The wines are hand-crafted and only top quality French oak is employed.

Rick named the winery after the Mona Lisa (“La Giaconda”), and much like their namesake, his wines are enigmatic. The Warner Shiraz offers plum, sour cherry and ripe blueberry alongside a comforting spice that envelops the mouth. But, it manages to balance these with restraint and a honed finish that belies expectations. Delectable.

The RWT differs from the other Penfolds reds in that enjoys a maturation in French Oak, with fruit coming from 20 to 100 year-old vineyards, across the west and north-west of the Barossa Valley. The best vineyards produce fruit of voluptuous intensity, ripe tannins, and juicy flavours, these are intertwined with the French oak, creating a seductive style that has some similarity to a modern Rhone. I find the RWT has more finesse and precision to it than any other wine in the range. Superb in 2005!

Magill Estate Shiraz is a very important Penfolds single vineyard wine. It is of great symbolic importance because it is completely created in the remaining original vineyard (5.2 ha) and the original Penfolds winery at Magill, established in 1844 in Adelaide's eastern suburbs.

First produced in 1983, Penfolds Magill Estate Shiraz is an elegant, medium-weight style with velvety texture and fine tannins, matured in both French and American oak. It is a sleek, contemporary wine, yet crafted in the old fashioned way in the 120+ year-old winery: hand-picked, vinified in open fermenters and then basket pressed. Careful vineyard management (sacrificial canes, fruit thinning, relegation), batching and subsequent separation of ferments pay welcome dividends.

The 2005 vintage delivers a focused palate with the flavours and textures true to style. Tannins are firm and obvious - tight and chalky, not expansive and coarse. Oak is integrated - the cedar, vanillins and citrus notes are possibly illustrative of both French and American oak origins. This release is reminiscent of the 1994 vintage, albeit the vines of this Penfolds monopole are now more than 10 years older.

This wine too is 100% Shiraz and it is the undoubted show-stopper of the range. A more expressive wine would be hard to find from anywhere in the globe: The Factor exhibits a massive body of fruit (cherries, blueberries, everything) that is held together by a firm but seamlessly integrated tannic structure. The finish lasts for almost a full minute and is intense from beginning to end. This wine simply has to give the more famous Australian super-wines a serious run for their money.
(Mark Ross, Fine Wine Commercial Manager)