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Currently out of stock
There's a noticeable cabernet component here (it's 11% cabernet), giving the flavour profile a noticeable hit of blackcurrant and a more elongated, bony, tannin-driven structure. Still, the palate does come with flights of deep, dense, dark blackberry and crushed ants, and there's a thick, malty, mentholly hit, particularly on the finish. Again, the striking thing here is the wine's balance. And with a polished array of supporting flavours: cedar, dark chocolate, Asian-spice and brooding prune, it seems that time could easily do wonders. The Barossa Valley experienced a drier than average growing season with rainfall at 83 percent of the 10 year mean, reducing yield in a virtually disease-free season. Ripening was slow. Good sugar levels, alcohols and ripe flavours were realised. Good rainfall in the McLaren, Coonawarra had a warm, dry autumn followed by a cool slightly wet summer. Alcohol 13.50% Acidity 7.20g/L pH 3.55% Comments by John Duval: Dark plum with brick red rim. Rich and complex with flashes of green tea leaf and truffle, interlocked with freshly tanned leather and savoury notes, prune and stewed blueberry fruits. Enticing classy oak (cedar) elevated, yet not overstated, by smoky barrel ferment character. What is promised on the nose is delivered on the palate - an opulent, intense, hedonistic wine. Layers of massive Shiraz fruit and expertly crafted oak manifest themselves into a seemingly endless variety of flavours - deep plum, liquorice, cedar, chocolate, coffee - all compressed into a silken, round mouth feel. Forceful, ripe tannins are balanced by sheer weight of fruit. An excellent offering from an above average vintage. |
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Penfolds was founded by a young English doctor who migrated to one of his country's most distant colonies a century and a half ago
Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold was born in 1811, the youngest of 11 children. He studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, graduating in 1838. Like many doctors before and since, Dr Penfold had a firm belief in the medicinal value of wine. Before he left Britain he had obtained vine cuttings from the south of France and these were planted around the site of the modest stone cottage he built with his wife, Mary, at Magill on the outskirts of Adelaide in 1845. The couple called this house The Grange, after Mary's home in England. Penfolds»
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