The Auswine Forum

NOBLEROTTERSSYDNEY - MOSTLY PENFOLDS - Fix, St James, Sydney (7/06/2023)

We used to have Penfolds nights a bit more regularly, but no-one buys them any more due to phone-number pricing. So we just work through stashes of antiques; those of us with them still. And on this occasion they were all very good. And with just seven of us, plenty to go round! A proper secret ballot might have seen WotN go to the 98 St Henri, but there wasn’t a dud wine in the bunch.

• NV Taittinger Champagne Nocturne Sec - France, Champagne
  {cork, 12.5%} [Greg] Stoney sort of nose. Grapefruit, citrus. Just a little introverted though. The palate is rich, with a nod to light honey in the flavours, but the ‘sec’ hardly translated to obvious sweetness at all. Fine delicate bubbles, medium body, with a brioche tinge to the flavours. Perhaps finishes a touch short of medium length. Quite a crowd-pleaser though.
• 1986 Penfolds Shiraz Bin 28 Kalimna - Australia, South Australia
  {cork, 13%} [Graeme] This is a pretty humble wine to attempt at 37 years, but the level was still in the neck, the (fairly stumpy!) cork looked perfect, and I’ve heard the 86 acclaimed as the best Bin 28 ever made. Just uncorked and poured at table – there seemed little sediment left after all these years. Aged nose, of lovely warm leather, cigar-box and a spicy lift from a touch of controlled volatility. On the now mirror-smooth palate are gentle chocolate and tar flavours along with the full spice box, medium body, and even balance along the tongue. Finishes dry, with a medium length finish. A startlingly good surprise, which even held up pretty well over two hours. Very much alive and kicking.
• 1999 Houghton Cabernet Sauvignon Jack Mann - Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Frankland River
  {cork, 14.5%} [Sian] Purely developed nose of cabernet fruit, all currants and cigar. Still quite some fruit, even at the quarter century mark. The palate suggests this is fully developed, with low resolved tannins providing only the faintest chalky underpinning, and a note of malt and charcoal creeping into the flavours. Medium weight, picks up an acetic note with air. Medium length finish for this gracefully aged wine, but I feel there’s nothing much left to come. Had a quick double decant just before serving.
• 1998 Penfolds Shiraz RWT - Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
  {cork, 14.5%} [Graeme] Double-decanted two hours earlier off plenty of sediment. Still has the rich blueberry and sweet cedary oak it had back in its youth. It’s a mass of jammy fruit and oak, as though Penfolds had invented it specifically to cash in on the Parker-driven US demand for Barossa shiraz. This is a super-ripe, extracted style, just avoiding dead grape or raisin flavours; a very ‘un-Penfolds’ red. It’s plenty drinkable, with lots of blue and red flavour, but maybe it’s a bit obvious and simple – one-dimensional – in the way the other Penfolds reds weren’t tonight.
• 1998 Penfolds Shiraz St. Henri - Australia, South Australia
  {cork, 14%} [Stephen] Big, soft old leathery fruit. But a bit restrained, dignified, with dust, earth, plum. Proper wine. Fruit-driven palate, in the best sense, not too extracted or over-ripe. Mostly blackberry type flavours, the seasoning oak acts more as texture than flavour, with low/medium dusty tannins, medium acid and overall a medium/full weight. Long finish. Adds up to more than the sum of its parts. Perfect example of a great Penfolds shiraz – it’s head and shoulders above the RWT, for instance. Double-decanted just before service, I think.
• 2005 Penfolds Shiraz St. Henri - Australia, South Australia
  {cork, 14%} [DavidH] At least a generation young than the 98, unsurprisingly. Big nose of cherry liqueur and plums. Touch of vanilla. Opened up further with time. The familial resemblance to the 98 is there, but this seems to have more extract and oak generally, with medium/high dusty tannins, and medium/full weight. Flavours follow the nose. Medium/long finish. Hard to believe it’s nearly twenty years old though. Likely will be better in another ten years.
• 1983 Penfolds Grange - Australia, South Australia
  {cork, 12.9%} [Gordon] Double-decanted about three hours earlier. Soy and umami, I heard people saying, and they’re right. There’s also brine and tar. And black fruit, of course. Not overly oaky. Even palate, medium/long finish. Medium chalky tannins. It’s very impressive, especially for forty years old, but it didn’t trump the 98 St Henri as you might expect. I checked the note I took on Gordon’s last Rotters’ bottle of this in 2019 and I reckon this bottle was ever-so-slightly below par for some reason, at least by the time it got to the table. The vagaries of corks and bottle variation, I suspect (since storage was common). A fine wine, yes, but not at its best, I think.
• 2013 Best's Great Western Shiraz Bin No 0 - Australia, Victoria, Western Victoria, Great Western
  {cork, 14%} [Glenn] Seemed very young and minty, in context! Against the South Australian’s this is quite spicy and savoury with plenty of that Victorian dust and earth. Medium-bodied, with medium chalky tannins and subtle oak. Decent acidity too. Black cherry fruit, medium length finish. The only red of the night clearly in need of further cellaring.
• 2015 Château Filhot - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
  {375ml, cork, 13.5%} [Greg] Two bottles opened, and one appreciably more smoky, dusty, muted than the other. I got the ‘better’ one for this note. Clean, light nose of honey and some gewurz-like pot-pourri aromas. Gently medium-dry palate of light honey sweetness, with balancing acidity. Light/medium weight, but beguiling, with apparent oak or overt botrytis character. Medium length finish. Refreshing.
• NV Seppeltsfield Muscat DP 63 Grand - Australia, Victoria, North East, Rutherglen
  {500ml, screwcap, 17%} [Greg] Bonus from Greg off the list @ Fix. Sultana, caramel, molasses. As though grapes have been dried right out the liquified somehow. Medium-sweet, full-bodied, with high acidity to balance. Has had a multitude of packaging over the years as part of Seppelt, but the wine seems better now than it ever was under its own, fortified-focussed flag. ‘Grand’ is indeed the word.

Thanks for the note on the 86 Bin 28. I purchased 2 dozen for $96 a case. Wished I picked up 10 cases. Wonderful wine when it actually was Kalimna. The current edition is a parody.
Think I have single bottle somewhere.
Cheers Craig

I recall the RWT being touted as a 'more elegant' premium red, but that argument seems to have been based solely on the use of french (and not US) oak, with the wine itself being consistent with the big red Penfolds house style.

I've still got 2 bottles of the 1999 vintage remaining, the previous ones drunk all enjoyable, probably just about worth the amount I paid back then (IIRC it was a somewhat discounted price). Not exactly exciting though, hence sitting on the last 2 to see if maturity/over-maturity brings something more interesting.

I very much prefer the Best's / Grampian style.

p.s. agree with you Craig on the parody comment. The use of single vineyard names for wines that might not even have a single grape from that vineyard, makes a mockery of naming the vineyard on the label.

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Thanks Graeme, great notes. Would have liked to have seen some Pennies wine in lieu of those interstate interlopers

On the few occasions I have had the 86 Bin28, it has always been excellent, maybe one bottle that was sub-par. Just an excellent value wine for cellaring at that time.

Have a few special Bin bottles (from '90, '96 and '04) still stashed away in storage, probably going to open some later this year, and definitely next year for a significant birthday. They are among my favourite wines, eg not strictly a Bin wine, but Block42 being my favourite cabernet. Old St Henris are just super wines, had a more recent '10, that is a cracker and is going to be just superb in time, St Henri has got to be the best value wine in the Pennies line-up then and now. Not sure what all these new "superblends" are?

That's good to hear Sean. Thanks for the update.