The Auswine Forum

Picked up an 89 Penfolds St Henri on the weekend for a good price. Probably going to open it this weekend. JO seemed to like it with 94pts but the Penfolds tasting guys seemed to think it was more of a difficult vintage. I've only had the 2001 and 1999. So not ever having a St Henri in the drink now region, what should I expect? Do you like this wine? How will it differ from the "better" years - within their drink now time? My apologies if you are sick and tired of hearing about St Henri right now

I haven't tried the '89 - I had the opportunity to buy some well cellared bottles a few months ago but passed on it.

In Penfolds Rewards of Patience 4 the panel was fairly positive of it, noting the particularly sweet cherry fruit.

In total contrast James Halliday described it as a DMS bomb in ROP 5, with a comment like: "I violently object to this wine!"

Given the descriptions I'd expect it to be mid-weight, green and extremely sweet as a rough guess, a bit of depature from the usual savoury/meaty/leather characters of a classic St Henri.

Cheers,
Ian

Hi Graham... I had a bottle about a year ago. I bought it at the Penfolds cellar door when I was there, so the wine had been from their own cellars. I opened it a few weeks later and the cork just crumbled everywhere, and the wine was undrinkable {being polite}. Full credit to Penfolds who replaced it instantly. No notes on the second bottle, which is my only St Henri experience so far it must be said, so I cannot compare to other vintages. I do recall it was very aged with leathery flavours and had a very high amount of sediment. I would rather have drunk it a few years earlier to be honest. I have often read TN's on here about how the 86 is drinking great and the 90 is still youthfull. My bottle of 89 was past its peak. Now a year on, I must track down a 90 to compare.

Rob

After reading n4sir's description, perhaps it was a classic St Henri Style which I cannot compare to. It was savoury leather in flavour but deffinatly not one bit of greeness in my bottle. Just too aged for mine

The St Henri was the pick of the 89 Penfolds. I had a six pack and drank the last one two years ago when it was beginning to fall apart. At a St henri dinner in 2001 when we had (if I remember correctly) 66, 71, 86, 89 and at least one other It showed very well and consistent to style. If you get a good bottle should be a great drink - not quite in the league of the 86 but it drank better than 88 has to date (tannin resolution problem).

had a botle of this maybe 2 years ago - no real notes taken but i do recall that it was a tannic bugger with the fruit all but gone - having said that - the conditions the bottle may have been in could have been fair to middling at best.