In a live feed from Penfold’s in
Adelaide (which is literally happening as I write this), chief winemaker Peter Gago and Andrew Caillard hosted the Asia-wide
release of its Bin, Icon and Luxury wine range of new vintages hosted by the
Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Hong Kong together concurrently with tasters in Taipei
at the Grand Hyatt Taipei and tasters in Shanghai’s Hyatt on the Bund.
Penfold's Bin, Icon and Luxury brands
enjoy a remarkable heritage and fascinating evolution, reflecting the
extraordinary energy and vision of Penfold’s winemakers that have set the
standard for contemporary winemaking in Australia.
The 2013 Icon and Luxury new
releases include Penfold’s Grange 2008, one of Australia’s most celebrated
wines and a favourite amongst fans and collectors around the world. Officially
listed as a Heritage Icon of South Australia, the 2008 Grange is a powerful
expression of Penfold’s multi-vineyard, multi-district blending philosophy utilizing
fully ripe, intensely flavoured and textured Shiraz grapes.
Inspired by Grange and sharing
the same lineage, the Penfold’s Bin Series represents the heart of Penfold’s
range in terms of quality, philosophy, accessibility and choice. The 2013 Bins
release includes stand-out wines from the 2010 vintage including the Bin 389
(very highly rated by many journalists world-wide according to Mr. Gago), Bin
407 Cabernet Sauvignon and Kalimna Bin 28 Shiraz, showcasing great style,
longevity, colour, fruit and intensity couple with fantastic balance.
Stand out wines from the tasting
for Wine Times were the 2010 Yattarna Chardonnay, still possibly the best New
World Chardonnay on the planet and, for us at least, arguably one of the top
Chardonnays in the world. The wine itself could probably do with 1-2 years to
mellow in the bottle but it is still an amazing wine in our books.
The McGill 2010 was delightful
with subtle liquorice on the nose and palate with an easy, ready to drink style
that accompanies Penfold’s wines. It has some fantastic aging potential and,
although it’s not earth-shatteringly good, it’s still a great representation of
a well made and well balanced Aussie wine.
The Bin 389, one of our favourites,
was, overall, exceptional. Easy drinking with some spicy characters and a big,
fat, masculine wine in true Aussie style, but without the negatives that are
generally put to Aussie wines, not fruit sweet, but elegant.
The St. Henri 2009 has good
acidity with a nice elegant and feminine body with some sweet fruit and a good medium
length finish. A fine representation of Aussie Shiraz and one that I am sure
will go down well after a few years in the cellar.
The Bin 707 is very classic in its
style with great fruit and subtle tannins. There are some tobacco notes on the
palate with a fantastic long finish, overall, a very nice drop of wine.
Finally, the Grange 2008 has a
fat nose and on the palate, as one would expect, a lot of tannin telling me it
can do another 15-25 years in the cellar. It is a big wine as one would expect
and is masculine with that typical touch of Penfold’s elegance.
Overall, the new vintages of
Penfold’s are consistent with the high standards the winery sets itself and
wines that will, of course, do very well here in Hong Kong. For me, the Grange
2008 is a keeper and, if looking for a good ready to drink wine for tomorrow
then I’d take the 389 any day! Sadly, you will have to wait a while for these
wines as the Bin series are scheduled to be in Hong Kong from March 1st
2013 while the Icon and Luxury ranges to be ready here from May 2nd
2013.
Penfold’s wines are available in
Hong Kong from Jebsen Fine wines. For more information contact
Marco Vazquez on
marcovazquez@jebsen.com
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