Special Bin Commemoration – 60th Anniversary
Penfolds Special Bins hold a special significance and place among generations of Australian wine collectors. Some of the early examples are prototypes for masterpieces, including Grange and Bin 707. Other, later bottlings are exploratory blends to understand how varieties or regional fruit interact. Since Max Schubert’s first experimental bottlings of Bin 1 Grange Hermitage, Penfolds has been at the forefront of fine winemaking in Australia. The Penfolds red winemaking style has been developed and improved through its ongoing limited production of Special Bin vintages. This tradition still continues in the modern era with new imaginative experimental wines and collaborative projects. STORY OF BIN 60A 1962 Penfolds Bin 60A Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, Kalimna Shiraz, a Coonawarra–Barossa Valley blend, is one of the most famous wines of the 20th century and a colossus in the canon of Australian wine. Although it wasn’t commercially released (yet bottles found their way into the market in various ways), it enjoyed an astonishing wine show career and established a mythical status within the Australian wine community and beyond. As a biographer of the Penfolds brand and erstwhile wine auctioneer, I have been privileged to see the wine on many occasions through myriad forums, dinners and tastings over 35 years. Whenever I taste or drink the wine, it is like catching up with an old friend who is rarely out of sorts. Although the frequency has diminished over the years, it will always remain
a standout all-time great. At a recent Penfolds dinner in Bordeaux, with a distinguished guest list of winemakers and international journalists, we were treated to a perfect example of this most famous wine. While it does not have the Churchillian references of 1945 Ch Mouton Rothschild, the transformative 1962 Bin 60A paved the way for ultra-fine Australian wine and brought kudos and fame to Coonawarra. The Barossa component gave the wine richness and volume, but it was the expressive cool climate cabernet that turned heads at the time. The South Australian Cabernet Shiraz blend, where the woof of cabernet and weft of shiraz magically intertwines, also took off as a classic red wine style during the 1960s. Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz has since become a wine collector’s stalwart and rarely disappoints. And every now and again, Penfolds releases an homage to Bin 60A, some of which have established very good secondary market currency.
138 The Wine Journal – 2023
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