The Auswine Forum

I reckon people have been too hard on the 138. I really like it. Drinks very well. The 407 is the wine I am going to buy. Top wine. At around $22 it is a snip. Maybe one or two of the 389.

Penfolds Bin 138 GSM 2005

Oh dear. Here is another Penfolds bin wine that I really like. It is not as good as the excellent 2004 vintage mind you. I do think this wine ages better than most people give it credit for. The 1994 is still drinking well to my tastes (although I don’t know if that particular vintage had a higher percentage of shiraz to help it along). I opened this yesterday, had a little test drive, and then popped it back into the fridge. It looks better on day two, although it has not moved a great deal. This is 72% grenache, 15% shiraz, and the rest mourvedre.

Aromas of cherry jam, raspberry, flyspray, new leather, spice and a lovely musky perfume. On the palate a mix of fresh and more jammy red berry fruit, spice, seaweed and leather flavours. The tannins are lightly powdery and dry and there is a sense of lightness and freshness throughout the wine. Finishes with leather and sweet red fruit flavours. Highly drinkable and very close to an excellent rating.

Rated : 89+ Points
Tasted : Mar07
Alcohol : 14.5%
Price : $28
Drink : 2008 - 2014

Gary W wrote:I reckon people have been too hard on the 138. I really like it. Drinks very well. The 407 is the wine I am going to buy. Top wine. At around $22 it is a snip. Maybe one or two of the 389.

Penfolds Bin 138 GSM 2005

Oh dear. Here is another Penfolds bin wine that I really like. It is not as good as the excellent 2004 vintage mind you. I do think this wine ages better than most people give it credit for. The 1994 is still drinking well to my tastes (although I don’t know if that particular vintage had a higher percentage of shiraz to help it along). I opened this yesterday, had a little test drive, and then popped it back into the fridge. It looks better on day two, although it has not moved a great deal. This is 72% grenache, 15% shiraz, and the rest mourvedre.

Aromas of cherry jam, raspberry, flyspray, new leather, spice and a lovely musky perfume. On the palate a mix of fresh and more jammy red berry fruit, spice, seaweed and leather flavours. The tannins are lightly powdery and dry and there is a sense of lightness and freshness throughout the wine. Finishes with leather and sweet red fruit flavours. Highly drinkable and very close to an excellent rating.

Rated : 89+ Points
Tasted : Mar07
Alcohol : 14.5%
Price : $28
Drink : 2008 - 2014

The 1994 Old Vine is Mourvedre-dominant of all things, and the last one I tried (quite a few years ago) was drinking very well indeed - for a long time it was Barb Lengs' personal favourite and it was available for tasting fairly regularly at Magill Estate. FWIW my favourite is still the 1998 which (perhaps not surprisingly) is Shiraz-dominant; the 1996 which is Grenache-dominant was disappointing the last time I tried it, but that was a while ago so I should give it another crack again soon.

Many people thought my comments about the 2005 were a little mean, and yes it's a nice enough drink-now wine that shows plenty of Grenache fruitiness, but as you've said it's not as good as the 2004. For my money I'd rather have the 2005 Teusner Joshua or 2004 Winter Creek Grenache Shiraz on the table and in the cellar (there's probably a few others too).

Cheers,
Ian