Penfolds Collection 2019 - Tasting

[Croquet King]

Has anyone been to any of these tasting yet?
I'm going to the one tonight in Sydney.

[phillisc]

Has anyone been to any of these tasting yet?
I'm going to the one tonight in Sydney.

Would appreciate your impressions on the St Henri CK.
Cheers Craig

[Croquet King]

Let me edit this in the reality of the next morning.

Just back from the tasting and in a word - underwhelmed!!!!!!! - Still feeling the same as I did last night.

WHITES
2019 Bin 51 Riesling - good primary fruit and light lemon and citrus. Would be good to try in 5 years but doesn't seem a long term proposition.
Bin 311 Adelaide Hills, Tumbarumba, Tasmania Chardonnay - Not bad but very one dimensional. Chardonnay and oak
2018 Bin 18A Chardonnay Adelaide Hills - opened up nicely in the glass once it warmed up. More complex and better use of oak with higher acid, slightly buttery but I'd prefer LEAS or Kumea River. It had the makings of some mineral and flint characters.

REDS
2017 Bin 28 - good nose with a slight hint of liquorice. Minimal tannins and can't see this going any distance. A $25 wine.
2017 Bin 407 - I've always found this either thin or over extracted but they seemed to have cracked it. Distinctive cabernet nose, well rounded and full on the palate. Drinking really well now. Would buy if it was $50. WOTN by a fair distance.
2017 Bin 389 54% Cab, 46% Sh - well made wine with the black fruits coming through and I would have guessed up to 70% Cabernet.

2017 RWT - Sweet oak on the nose but well integrated on the palate. I got a bit of burnt rubber as well on the nose. A pleasant wine to drink
2016 St Henri - Another well made wine that didn't excite me. I really wanted to like it. Slight black fruits on the nose with a real berry palate.
2015 Grange - wow. I was staggered at this wine. A few people (not in my group) were saying this was the best wine they have ever tasted. I thought it was faulty and swapped glasses for wine out of a different bottle - it wasn't. Over extracted, porty, sweet, pencil shavings. They were sprouting how it got given 100 points - seriously absolutely no where near it. Worst grange I've tasted and I've had a few.

I won't be buying any of these wines. Nothing at all close to good value.
The theme for me is conservative - all made in a safe style with nothing really standing out as excellent.


Other notes / thoughts

Location was brilliant, the top of Centrepoint or Sydney Tower as it is now know.
Lets cut to the chase - the Grange. Over extracted, porty, pencil shavings. I did not rate this at all. I would not pay $50 for this wine but apparently someone gave it 100 points. Go figure.

WOTN was clearly the 407. It pains me to say it as I'm not a fan but it was very good. $90 good maybe not. Good structure, tannins, some oak with black fruits and olive.

[Croquet King]

Has anyone been to any of these tasting yet?
I'm going to the one tonight in Sydney.

Would appreciate your impressions on the St Henri CK.
Cheers Craig

Some more detail on the St Henri

It's just not an exciting wine. I have about 8 6 packs of various vintages and always buy if it's any good, so I would always slightly favour the wine.
Fruit really stood out (as to be expected) but it was more like mixed berries with nothing dominating. Seems atypical of previous St Henri's. Maybe time will prove me wrong but I won't be buying any.

I guess you'll have to try and taste it. The beauty of wine is that we all like different things.

[phillisc]

Thanks CK, really appreciate the report. Another long time Pennies fan, (although even for him, the gloss is quickly wearing off) PM'd me. Many of his views have been echoed by you, too much hype for what the wines are, that they have changed and or lost consistency, perhaps too many in the range, perhaps finances are the driver, whatever...

I managed to pick up the 10, 12 and 14 St Henri at staff price, all south of $70. I have tried these three and thought them pretty good. I am absolutely loathed to pay $100 for it. Yes will wait for an opportunity to try and then think about it. Strangely unlike previous years where I have had multiple phone calls and emails from TWE, Penfolds and cellar door...not one this year. I have a feeling that there is simply no rush to purchase and when at the Nuri CD a couple of months back, I counted somewhere between 50-75 wooden boxes of the 15...appear to me at least that not much was selling.

I have about 30 different 2016 Shiraz from SA/VIC/NSW...St Henri was one that I was going to add to the line up.
Cheers craig

[cleanskinlover]

Interesting! I haven't been a fan of Penny's for sometime and lashed out a bought a case of the St Henri 2016 after tasting. I thought the 311 tasted like it was a barrel selection that didn't make the cut for Yattarna (quite delicious). Agreed the scores are silly.

[Rory]

I have had the opportunity to only taste the 389, and was not convinced on it either.

[Ian S]

Amusing that the much maligned Bin407 was the star. In times gone by it used to get fearsome abuse.

[Croquet King]

Amusing that the much maligned Bin407 was the star. In times gone by it used to get fearsome abuse.

Not what I was expecting at all.
I haven't bought it since maybe the 96 or 98 vintage. Never liked it and its just so expensive for what it is.

Although it was the star I'd still only pay $50 for it which is almost half the going rate.

[GraemeG]

I managed to pick up the 10, 12 and 14 St Henri at staff price, all south of $70. I have tried these three and thought them pretty good. I am absolutely loathed to pay $100 for it.

I've thought for years that you'd never buy 389 given SH was usually way better for only $20 more. But SH is looking ropey too, eh?
No surprise for me.
I don't think Pennies sell anything that's decent value-for-money any more.
Graeme

[Croquet King]

I got a call from Penfolds today asking how many I wanted to buy.
I gave an honest assessment of what I thought of the wines. I was very nice about it.

She told me that there was no 707 made in 2017 and the fruit went into the 407. Maybe that explains it a bit.

[Craig(NZ)]

Amusing that the much maligned Bin407 was the star. In times gone by it used to get fearsome abuse.

in times gone by??

Anyone that spends $90 on a 407 is an idiot

[ticklenow1]

I got a call from Penfolds today asking how many I wanted to buy.
I gave an honest assessment of what I thought of the wines. I was very nice about it.

She told me that there was no 707 made in 2017 and the fruit went into the 407. Maybe that explains it a bit.

If that is the case, it may end up being something special. Especially if it gets heavily discounted.

Cheers
Ian

[Ian S]

Amusing that the much maligned Bin407 was the star. In times gone by it used to get fearsome abuse.

in times gone by??

though to be fair to the wine, it seems the rest of the range has caught up in the derision offered up in response to the prices

[Craig(NZ)]

Amusing that the much maligned Bin407 was the star. In times gone by it used to get fearsome abuse.

in times gone by??

though to be fair to the wine, it seems the rest of the range has caught up in the derision offered up in response to the prices

Yeah I used to say St Henri was the only one worth the money, now after recent price rises I will perhaps need to take that off the table too