The joy of tasting with Penfolds‘ ebullient chief winemaker Peter Gago is that even when he’s horribly jetlagged, he can’t hide the fact that he has the best job in the world. The most recent event at the Peninsula Hotel in London was particularly charged as 2024 is the first year that all six of the wines in Penfolds’ Luxury & Icon range will be sold on La Place de Bordeaux.
The company dipped its toes in La Place with the release of Bin 169 in 2021 but now it has gone all in, meaning that icons including Grange, Yattarna and St. Henri will be distributed globally by negociants who work with legendary names such as Chateau Palmer and Cheval Blanc. La Place dates back more than 800 years but it has evolved since 1998 as an international marketplace for tradeable fine wine, including the top releases from Argentina, Chile and California, as well as Super Tuscans like Masseto and Tignanello. While spring is all about the Bordeaux en primeur campaign, autumn sees the arrival of wines from around the world.
Gago explains the benefits of having his wines sold in Bordeaux: ‘La Place have longstanding luxury relationships and wide-reaching connections and distribution throughout the world of wine, including the most exclusive upper echelons of many global markets.’ These help Penfolds find ‘right customers, the right demographics’ for its Luxury & Icon range, he added.
It was a logical step for Penfolds, which celebrates its 180th anniversary this year, a life longer than many revered European producers. Grange has been valued as one of the world’s greatest wines for decades. Hugh Johnson called it ‘Australia’s one first growth claret’. It was created by Max Schubert following a visit to Bordeaux but the first vintage, 1951, didn’t meet with the approval of the company’s management and they instructed him to stop. Happily, he didn’t and when the bosses tried the first Grange a few years later, they saw that their chief winemaker was onto something.
Tasting young Grange, like the 2020 vintage, which has just been released with its sturdy tannins and wild flavours of eucalyptus, liquorice and maraschino cherry, is a lesson in considering where it might be in 10, 20 or even 40 years. Just to prove this point, Gago later poured the 2002 to see what Grange can achieve with a mere two decades in bottle. I was knocked out by how all those disparate elements had knitted together into something harmonious and remarkable.
Another wine with a glorious future ahead is the 2022 Yattarna Bin 144. When it was first released in 1998 with the 1995 vintage, Yattarna was billed as a white Grange. Like it’s red brother, it shows the richness of blending. The new release combines 61% grapes from Tumbarumba in New South Wales with 21% Tasmania and 13% Adelaide Hills fruit into a wine of stunning intensity and concentration.
As collectable fine wines for the long haul, the Penfolds Luxury and Icon range comfortably sits alongside the other big names on La Place
Penfolds St Henri used to be sold as St. Henri Claret, despite being made from 100% Shiraz. It followed the same logic where Semillon was sold as Riesling, Grenache as Burgundy and Muscat as Tokay. Since then, Australia has outgrown the European comparisons and yet there is something a little Bordeaux-esque about St. Henri; it’s a wine that offers elegance next to the sheer muscularity of Grange. Made from fruit from all over South Australia, there’s no new oak, so this is all about freshness and fruit. The 2021 that Gago poured was already tasting temptingly superb. ‘Could this release join the St Henri stellar quintet of the last 70 years – ’71, ’90, ’10, ’16 & ’18?! The word on the street is … yes!’ he says.
In contrast, Bin 707 might be 100% Cabernet Sauvignon but it does not evoke Bordeaux. Like Grange, it’s South Australian to the core and aged in 100% new American oak, which brings bold notes of coconut, walnut and tobacco alongside cassis fruit. The 2022 promised much for the future but it needs time. No wonder the Penfolds book put together by Andrew Caillard MW is called The Rewards of Patience.
Then there’s Bin 798 RWT, standing for ‘red winemaking trial’, which was launched in 2000 with the 1997 vintage. The aim was to produce something fleshy and opulent compared with the broad-shouldered Grange. It’s a South Australian Shiraz but it couldn’t be more different to its famous brother. RWT is soft with big dark-fruit flavours, like plums and blackberries, with the plushest, smoothest tannins you have ever tasted; like lying down on an expensive duvet. It’s one you can easily drink young, though, as with all these wines, it will last and last.
Bin 798 RWT is one you can easily drink young, though, as with all these wines, it will last and last
And finally, to show there’s more to Penfolds than blended wines, Gago demonstrated the power of terroir with Bin 169. The first Penfolds wine to be sold on La Place, it comes entirely from Australia’s Cabernet central, Coonawarra. This cool region is noted for the elegance of its wines and Bin 169’s aromatic and floral flavours, accentuated by 100% French oak, are a big contrast to the 707.
As collectable fine wines for the long haul, the Penfolds Luxury and Icon range comfortably sits alongside the other big names on La Place. But pretty much everything in Penfolds range is built for ageing. Gago even suggested that his entry-level wine, Koonunga Hill Seventy Six Shiraz-Cabernet, benefited from a few years in the cellar. Well, you need something to drink while you wait for your Grange to mature.
