Craig(NZ) wrote:prices starting to be set in nz now for 2005 bins. looks like they will be the same as last year. looks like 389 will settle at $30-33 at most places for release, could be even smarter at supermarkets.
a good sign, hopefully they taste good too
That's almost enough to stop me buying it, Fosters disdain for local buyers is getting beyond a joke.
A quick browse on wine-searcher shows it listed in USA for as low as $19.51AUD equivalent (9 listings under $28AUD) and in NZ for $28.04 AUD equivalent and we'll be lucky if we see it below $42.
Cheers Brian Life's too short to drink white wine and red wine is better for you too! :-)
Or at least why I used to buy a 6 pack of 28, 407 and 389 in good vintages and a couple of bottles in lesser ones but now I only buy 1-2 bottles of must have vintages.
From vintages 93 to 98 I would have bought between 50 and 80 bottles of Penfolds Bins. From 99 to 04 I have probably bought 8-12 and I buy more wine and more expensive wine now than I did back then.
Tried them all last night. No tasting notes I'm afraid, and I was hurried, but on quick inspection the 407 is definitely the one to jump on - one of the best I've tried, period.
Bin 138, 128 and 28 were all good, solid wines (certainly no better than '02 or '04, IMO), and the 389 was very good, but like JO and N4SIR, I do think the '04 (and even '02?) are slightly better wines. The acid profiles were certainly apparent in all of the wines, especially the Bin 138 and 28. I have never bought more than a bottle of the Bin 407, but I will be grabbing a quantity of the 2005.
Cheers,
Max ----- Avant d’être bon, un vin doit être vrai
Tried them last night at the Fine Wine Delivery Company in Auckland. A very good function. Good value for $40 Craig; a great spread.
Bin 138 Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre 2006 Sweet and sweaty jujube-like grenache on the nose with cassis. Fresh, slightly astringent acids dominate a palate of fresh plum flesh. Tannins are a little grainy. Mid weight. Not to my taste at all.
Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2005 Black pepper, licorice and cedary oak; an attractive sense of real depth and extraction. Real grip and very good fruit. Excellent finish. Will cellar very well. Got a dozen at NZ$19.99.
Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz 2005 Ripe, spicy cherry nose with some chocolate and sweet plum. Palate is simple and fresh when compared to the 128 (it seems Coonawarra may be the pick of the districts when it comes to the 2005s). Palate is at first well balanced and vibrant with a long acid dominant finish, but the following impression is of fruit that is simple and a little thin. Didn't buy.
Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 Clear, well defined nose of minty blackcurrant; a compact and attractive bouquet. Good, pronounced acids, juicy, ripe fruit, nice length and grippy, powdery tannins. A pretty sexy wine. Got a dozen at NZ$23.99.
Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 2005 Nose is a little closed but swirling shows black olive, bay, hints of mint and spice, and a little liqueur fruit. Fruit is juicy and fleshy with sour cherries and blueberries dominant. Wonderfully balanced. Will develop well. Got a dozen at NZ$29.99.
That's almost enough to stop me buying it, Fosters disdain for local buyers is getting beyond a joke.
yeah i see your point, and id be slutted if coleraine was half the price in aussie, but a lot of it too is just the differences in excise and taxes. also remember you earn aussie dollars, we earn kiwi ultra taxed paso... its not so simple sometimes
Follow me on Vivino for tasting notes Craig Thomson
John #11 wrote:mmm Wasn't the Bin 128 2005 released last year?
Nope.
The 407 sounds like a definate one to try - thanks for the various reviews. The view of a number of critics was that 04 was a good return to form for 407 and it sounds like that's continuing with the 05.
I think the low prices in NZ are only as a new release special (currently only at FWDC from what I can see). Standard pricing for the bins is going to go up in NZ a little bit I think, with the RRP for 389 being over $40 (one Wellington retailer is asking $47!).
That's almost enough to stop me buying it, Fosters disdain for local buyers is getting beyond a joke.
yeah i see your point, and id be slutted if coleraine was half the price in aussie, but a lot of it too is just the differences in excise and taxes. also remember you earn aussie dollars, we earn kiwi ultra taxed paso... its not so simple sometimes
Yeah, I know it's not as simple as the basic arithmetic suggests, this issue has been dissected a few times in the past with no definitive conclusion other than there is still a significant premium levied on local buyers compared to USA, UK and NZ buyers. My rough calculations trying to allow for WET and differences in taxes and a guess at bulk-rate freight costs says 389 should be about $33 here to be comparable to NZ or about $28 to be comparable to US prices I've seen.
It doesn't make up for it, but there are quite a few NZ Chardonnay, other whites and a few reds being sold at auction over here and realising about half their original NZ price let alone the inflated Aus price. I've bought a few for friends who still drink the stuff at around $6-$7 AUD delivered when the current price in NZ is $15-$20. It's a funny old business at times.
Cheers Brian Life's too short to drink white wine and red wine is better for you too! :-)
Wycroft wrote:Tried them last night at the Fine Wine Delivery Company in Auckland. A very good function. Good value for $40 Craig; a great spread.
So you paid $40 to taste wines they would have either free or on promotion stock AND bought a couple of dozen wines from them. That's a bloody good business they have going there else I'd assume it was catered etc etc which was where the $40 was going.
Talking of Fosters pricing (and to Ratcatcher who does not buy Fosters)..what about all the slash and burn discounting of the last few years? Wynns Black Label for 16.99 and Coldtream Pinot the same. Did you not buy those either? Not good for the brands and I'd not defend Fosters marketing strategies either but it's pretty easy to forget the bargains you (could have) had out of them recently...on very good wines.
GW
Just tasted the wines. 389 is my pick this year. Haven't bought it for some years now, but will buy this year. I think it has remarkable aging potential.
In NZ I think that New World and Pak 'N Save will have best single bottle price - same as FWDC - but at the latter you need to buy a dozen to get the under $30 price.
Penfolds rep said prices will be specialled for first week/couple of weeks only, so get in quick.
There may also be a combination of cork and screwcap. Both closures were used and suppliers get what they ask for.
I did like the 407, a little more generous than usual, but I thought it lacked some of the 'classic' stylistic characters I've come to associate with 407, perhaps because there is no Coonawarra fruit in the 2005 vintage.
That's odd Sue, I thought the 407 was 100% Coonawarra fruit.
And re. what constitutes good value (and Craig, I remember when I could get a pack of salt & vinegar chips and a raspberry and lemonade with change for a dollar after Friday evening squash), yes, the FWDC function was very well catered. Perhaps it wasn't good value and I just got caught up in a very pleasant evening. Woest me.
SueNZ wrote:The 407 is a blend of McLarenVale and Padthaway for the 2005 vintage. Cheers, Sue
That seems a strange decision given the quality of the fruit from 05 in the Coonawarra. I wonder where the fruit went from the Coonawarra???
Glen
Winner of the inaugural RB cork-count competition
Runner up RB-NTDIR competition
Runner up TORB TN competition
Leave of absence second RB c-c competition
SueNZ wrote:The 407 is a blend of McLarenVale and Padthaway for the 2005 vintage. Sue
Winemaker Steve Leinert indicated to us that the '05 Bin 407 was a makeup of McLaren Vale, Padthaway AND Coonawarra fruit...
That's funny, I discussed this wine in some detail with Steve yesterday because I thought it stylistically different and much more generous and lush than past vintages and he said no Coonawarra fruit. The tech notes back this up.
I have on my hand written notes that there is some Robe fruit in there - but no Coonawarra.
Someone must know for sure.
GRB wrote:That seems a strange decision given the quality of the fruit from 05 in the Coonawarra. I wonder where the fruit went from the Coonawarra??? Glen
707, 389. Wynns. Mildara white label. Jamieson's Run. Robertson's Well. Wolf Blass Black Label. No shortgage of candidates...!
Graeme
As for Steve, he did seem to be a bit all over the place. At one point he was going on about how previous vintages of 138 were grenache dominant but this one had a higher proportion of syrah than any other varietal, and at the same time I was looking at the official notes in front of me saying grenache was clearly the biggest factor in the mix of the 2006, well ahead of shiraz and mourvedre.
To be fair to him I guess when you're crushing 20,000 tonnes of red grapes it's hard to keep up.
Wycroft wrote:...previous vintages of 138 were grenache dominant but this one had a higher proportion of syrah than any other varietal, and at the same time I was looking at the official notes in front of me saying grenache was clearly the biggest...
As 138 is labelled Grenache-Shiraz-Mourvedre, it has to have a composition in that descending order or its illegal labelling, so unless the labelling has changed, you know he got it wrong! Perhaps he just meant the relative amount of shiraz was higher than last year.
SueNZ wrote:The 407 is a blend of McLarenVale and Padthaway for the 2005 vintage. Cheers, Sue
That seems a strange decision given the quality of the fruit from 05 in the Coonawarra. I wonder where the fruit went from the Coonawarra???
Glen
My first guess is the top end products - the Cellar Reserve Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon Barossa Shiraz & Bin 707.
I reckon Wynns would get a good chunk too (along with former Jamiesons Run fruit). A competitor who's going through the same vineyard problems & vine replacement program said to me last year their sudden turnaround in 2004/05 has more to do with grabbing fruit from other Fosters vineyards than the replacement vines.
Wycroft wrote:As for Steve, he did seem to be a bit all over the place. At one point he was going on about how previous vintages of 138 were grenache dominant but this one had a higher proportion of syrah than any other varietal, and at the same time I was looking at the official notes in front of me saying grenache was clearly the biggest factor in the mix of the 2006, well ahead of shiraz and mourvedre.
There was a stuff up in some of the notes - one of the Winemakers at the Magill preview double checked mine to see if they corrected a mistake he picked up earlier where the printers had used the 2005 specs, and sure enough the data specs on the two pieces of promotional material were different. For the record the 2006 Bin 138 is marginally Shiraz dominant and off the top of my head around a third of each, while the 2005 was three quarters Grenache, the balance equally Shiraz & Mourvedre.
Tried them last night at the Fine Wine Delivery Company in Auckland. A very good function. Good value for $40 Craig
I guess in the end its what i have to add to the $40 which is in fact the straw that breaks the camels back. Cross town travel in rush hour, having to leave work early, having to find a park etc etc....just cant be f***** . it just makes it simpler to buy a bottle, go home ,invite a couple of mates over and do it that way.
Having dribbled that sob story out out , im off to the $40 te mata tasting in town on monday
Follow me on Vivino for tasting notes Craig Thomson
SueNZ wrote:The 407 is a blend of McLarenVale and Padthaway for the 2005 vintage. Cheers, Sue
That seems a strange decision given the quality of the fruit from 05 in the Coonawarra. I wonder where the fruit went from the Coonawarra???
Glen
My first guess is the top end products - the Cellar Reserve Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon Barossa Shiraz & Bin 707.
I reckon Wynns would get a good chunk too (along with former Jamiesons Run fruit). A competitor who's going through the same vineyard problems & vine replacement program said to me last year their sudden turnaround in 2004/05 has more to do with grabbing fruit from other Fosters vineyards than the replacement vines.
The wynns thing makes more sense as 707 production would be minute compared to 407. And Wynns did seem to make a big turnaround in a very short space of time.
Glen
Winner of the inaugural RB cork-count competition
Runner up RB-NTDIR competition
Runner up TORB TN competition
Leave of absence second RB c-c competition
n4sir wrote:There was a stuff up in some of the notes - one of the Winemakers at the Magill preview double checked mine to see if they corrected a mistake he picked up earlier where the printers had used the 2005 specs, and sure enough the data specs on the two pieces of promotional material were different. For the record the 2006 Bin 138 is marginally Shiraz dominant and off the top of my head around a third of each, while the 2005 was three quarters Grenache, the balance equally Shiraz & Mourvedre.
Cheers, Ian
For the trainspotters, the 2006 Bin 138 is 39% Shiraz, 32% Grenache, 29% Mourvedre. The 2005 Bin 138 is 72% Grenache, 15% Shiraz, 13% Mourvedre.
