2014 Penfolds Bin 95 Grange Shiraz – South Australia ★★★★★
G 100
Deep crimson. Fresh elemental elderberry, blackberry sage aniseed aromas roasted chestnut, vanilla oak and herb garden notes. Densely packed wine with concentrated blackberry cassis, dark cherry fruits, fine plentiful chalky grainy firm tannins, superb mocha vanilla oak complexity and fine long fresh integrated but crunchy acidity. Wonderful and substantial wine with a palimpsest of flavours and structure. Mouth coating staining wine with superb velvety finish. Complete freak of a wine. 98% Shiraz 2% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink 2035–2070, 14.5% alc Barossa Valley/McLaren Vale/Wrattonbully/Coonawarra/Clare Valley/Magill Estate (Adelaide)
2015 Penfolds Bin 95 Grange Shiraz – South Australia ★★★★★
G 97
Deep crimson. Fresh blackberry blackcurrant red cherry dark chocolate mocha aromas with herb garden aniseed star anise notes. Generous and supple with inky dark cherry, blackberry pastille fruits, fine graphite textures, inky mid-palate complexity and fresh underlying mocha oak. Silken, sinuous and beautifully integrated with extraordinary restrained power and wonderful mineral length. Perfectly balanced wine. Not as substantial as 2014, but more classical in structure – more like the claret style first envisaged. A 1963 all over again? Drink 2030–2080, 14.5% alc Barossa Valley/McLaren Vale/Clare Valley/Magill Estate (Adelaide)
2016 Penfolds Bin 95 Grange Shiraz – South Australia ★★★★★
G 98
Deep crimson. Intense elemental wine with brambly liquorice dark cherry, blackberry blackcurrant blueberry aromas with dark chocolate elderberry herb garden notes. Gorgeously seductive wine with dark cherry, blackberry dried plum fruits, superb rich dark chocolate notes, fine rich dense ripe tannins, grilled nuts and mocha roasted chestnut vanilla oak notes. Finishes slinky chalky and long with mineral length. Superb density and power. All in balance but still unintegrated. 97% Shiraz, 3% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink 2030–2070, 14.5% alc Barossa Valley (including Kalimna Vineyard), McLaren Vale and Clare Valley with a 1% contribution from Magill Estate
Penfolds Grange
35
Powered by FlippingBook