1962 Penfolds Bin 60A Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon Kalimna Shiraz South Australia 1962 Penfolds Bin 60A is one of the greatest Australian wines ever made. In a world where egos readily clashed, the 1962 Penfold Bin 60A unified wine critics and show judges. It is Penfolds’ most successful show wine, winning 19 trophies and 33 gold medals. A confluence of oenological, physical and philosophical achievement, 1962 Bin 60A was a cross-regional blend which exemplified the emerging Penfolds house wine style and the compelling attributes of blending Cabernet with Shiraz. In seeking his ‘ethereal’ wine, Max Schubert identified that the perfumed cassis/violet aromas, elegant flavours and fine-grained tannins of cool climate Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon could be complemented with the warm climate characteristics of ripe fruit and round chocolaty textures of Barossa Valley Shiraz. The fame of Bin 60A has reached all corners of the globe. Max Schubert’s direct contemporary Andre Tchelistcheff (1901–1994), the founding father of the modern California wine industry, once announced to a room of startled Napa Valley vignerons, ‘Gentlemen, you will all stand in the presence of this wine!’ Australian winemakers generally acknowledge the wine as a modern classic of profound and enduring academic importance. Leading critic Len Evans (1930–2006), who apparently brought that bottle to California, once described the wine as ‘one of the great reds I cut my palate on, and proved forever that the two varieties can blend beautifully together’. James Halliday, Australia’s leading wine author, once described it as ‘an utterly superb wine, a glorious freak of nature and Man; ethereal and beguiling, yet the palate is virtually endless, with a peacock’s tail stolen from the greatest of Burgundies; the fruit sweetness perfectly offset by acidity rather than VA. The 100-point dry red? Why not?’ THE STORIES OF GRANGE AND THE LEGENDARY 1962 BIN 60A CABERNET SHIRAZ EPITOMISE HOW IMAGINATION AND GUT-FEEL TRANSCEND NUMBERS. MAX SCHUBERT PUSHED BOUNDARIES, BECAUSE HE WASN’T CONSTRAINED BY SCIENTIFIC DOGMA AND HE
DARED TO BELIEVE IN HIMSELF. Peter Gago, Penfold’s Chief Winemaker
Sources Penfolds Collection 2022 The Australian Ark , to be published 2023
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