Grange, Yattarna, putting out the Bins (on La Place de Bordeaux)
Penfolds began in 1844 in what is now a suburb of Adelaide, with vine cuttings that the emigrating Dr Christopher Penfold had brought from Europe. In the early days it was all about Australian-style ‘sherries’. The company went on to score successes with dry Rieslings and Australian ‘claret’. But it wasn’t until the 1950s and the appointment of Max Schubert as Chief Winemaker that the ground was laid for Penfolds’ global reputation. Schubert made several vintages of Grange in secret after being ordered by the company board to desist. The board eventually relented after tasting maturing vintages. Soon Grange was winning medals left, right and centre and became Australia’s most famous wine, a position it has never since ceded (though many have tried to stake a claim).
Since Schubert’s time, Penfolds has only had three other Chief Winemakers, all of whom have made their own contributions to an outstanding line-up of wines. Penfolds has acquired a reputation for both consistency and innovation. They have also adopted the utilitarian habit of naming new wines after whichever cellar storage area (Bin) they are located in (hence Bin 169, Bin 707). The 6-strong ‘luxury and icon’ range of wines used to be distributed exclusively through its owner, Treasury Wine Estates, and were bundled with mass market lines. Penfolds recently decided to add a further route to market, via La Place de Bordeaux and, as a result, we’re delighted to be able to offer these wines on release for the first time.
Yattarna is a premium Chardonnay made from the very best grapes sourced across cool-climate zones (Tasmania, Adelaide Hills and high-elevation Tumbarumba). While the company philosophy has often championed cross-regional blending, Penfolds has also scored some great successes with regional-specific wines. Bin 169 is a Coonawarra-specific Cabernet, and the RWT Bin 798 is an opulent Barossa Shiraz. (RWT stands for ‘Red Wine Trial’, which they have clearly never got around to re-naming since it first hit the market in 1997). Following the success of Grange, Bin 707 was Max Schubert’s project to create a great single varietal Cabernet – current Chief Winemaker Peter Gago calls Bin 707 ‘the Grange of Cabernet’. The St Henri Shiraz predates Grange. It is an older style of wine that never sees any new oak (to which it refused to succumb even in the 1990s, when toasty oak was peak winemaking fashion). Grange is now officially a Heritage Icon of South Australia. It is made from only the very best Shiraz grapes from across South Australia (Barossa, Clare, McLaren, Coonawarra), aged in 100% new American oak. /NT
Offered subject to remaining unsold, available Winter 2024
