Penfolds’ super-premium reds forced to take a back seat to their white siblings
AUSTRALIA’S most famous wine, Penfolds Grange, has been outplayed by a bunch of its own stablemates – and one of those wines is sourced from Tasmania.
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AUSTRALIA’S most famous wine, Penfolds Grange, has been outplayed this year by a bunch of its own stablemates – and one of those wines is sourced from Tasmania.
The stars of this year’s highly anticipated Penfolds luxury wine releases are white hot – not red.
Four high-class whites, a riesling and three chardonnays, steal the attention from its usual leading red lights such as Penfolds Grange, St Henri and Bin 389, continuing stellar 2015 competition form which has led to the Magill based producer being named International White Winemaker of the Year at London’s prestigious International Wine Challenge.
The world class wines have catapulted Penfolds senior white wine maker Kym Schroeter to superstar status and added to the producer’s international recognition as a major force in global fine wine circles.
This year’s white releases also overshadow the annual focus on its high end red collection.
The new whites are led by two super-premiums that highlight the extraordinary quality now being reached by Australian chardonnay.
The Penfolds 2013 Yattarna ($150) combines Tasmanian and Adelaide Hills fruit while the Penfolds 2014 Reserve Bin A Chardonnay ($100) is all Adelaide Hills and a world class example of its variety.
The Reserve Bin A Chardonnay from three earlier vintages, 2009, ’10 and ’12 were the IWC champions that proved to the world that Australia and Penfolds is now known for its chardonnays as well as its reds, Kym Schroeter said.
“These wines show we are right up there with anywhere in the world, particularly Burgundy (France’s icon chardonnay region).
“That’s absolutely awesome, and something we always strived to achieve,” Mr Schroeter said.
The new 2011 vintage of Australia’s most famous wine is, in the words of chief winemaker Peter Gago, is a little out of sorts for this release.
The wine has been eagerly anticipated by industry experts waiting to see how the alpha male of Australian wines coped with the 2011 South Australian vintage, which most observers rate as a nightmare cold and wet season with much of the state’s top grape crop below par.
“Is it the best Grange ever?” Peter Gago questioned himself when pressed by News Corp Australia.
“No it isn’t,” he answered.
“It is what it is – a wine with nowhere to hide,” he said.
“Is this, however, one of the finest, if not the finest, red from the South Australian 2011 vintage?
“Yes it is.”
Even releasing a 2011 Grange from such a challenging vintage had been questioned by many critics, but it was always going to happen, Peter Gago said.
“It’s a major achievement in such a year when many other top wines weren’t made,” he said.
“We were always going to make Grange in 2011, even if was only a hundred cases.
“As it was, it was about half the usual [undisclosed] volume.
“We’re very pleased that there is now an uninterrupted line back to the first 1951 Grange vintage, which is just wonderful.”
While the new Grange may not be the 100-pointer it has been in past years, it is still a worthy addition to the continuous collection of the legendary South Australian heritage-listed shiraz.
At $785 it tops the Penfolds new release price points, but there are many other ultra-premium reds in the new set that are sensational drinking and cellaring propositions and cost hundreds of dollars less.
The highly regarded 2013 Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon ($500) is a stunner while three other 2013 shiraz stake their claims as the best on ground among the new releases.
The best suburban red wine in Australia, the Magill Estate 2013 Shiraz ($130) is a vibrant and exciting single vineyard wine grown in the foothills less than 10 kilometres from Adelaide’s CBD.
And two masterful Barossa Valley grown reds, the 2013 RWT ($175) and Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz ($80) show the strength of the region, the latter offering the best value for money in this year’s Penfolds’ red portfolio.
The wines will be available in major liquor retail outlets and Penfolds cellar doors from October 15.
Originally published as Penfolds’ super-premium reds forced to take a back seat to their white siblings
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