PENFOLD'S Shiraz Bin 111A 2016 Bottle In Presentation Box

Description

A new, rare wine from the 2016 vintage to honour 175 years of innovative winemaking. This year Penfolds celebrates 175 years of innovative winemaking. To honour this milestone, we are proud to unveil a new, rare wine from the 2016 vintage - Special Bin 111A Clare Valley Barossa Valley Shiraz 2016. Following in the footsteps of the fabled 1962 Bin 60A, perhaps our most renowned Special Bin, the new release has been awarded a perfect 100-point score from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. The 2016 vintage provided an ideal opportunity to create a bona fide Penfolds Special Bin, rare and true to the Penfolds ‘House Style’. Two special Shiraz single-vineyard parcels were blended to create something beguilingly beautiful and different. This wine sensorial and structurally delivers more than the sum of its parts. Framed by French oak, the assemblage of Shiraz is altogether different. Indeed, an authentic Penfolds Special Bin that will reward and evolve with careful cellaring. Drink Date: 2025 - 2050.

A new addition to the Penfolds lineup, the 2016 Bin 111A Shiraz is a blend of Clare (51%) and Barossa (49%) fruit from vineyards that have previously contributed to Grange. Aged in 100% new French oak, it's a rich, luxuriously textured wine that's packed with ripe fruit and finely textured tannins. Hints of grilled meat and exotic dried spices accent red raspberries and redcurrants in this full-bodied but exceptionally silky and elegant red that meets the high expectations for such a pricey bottling.

It's always a treat to sit with Chief Winemaker Peter Gago and taste through the latest releases from Penfolds. Despite losing one of his suitcases (thankfully, not the one with the newly bottled 2019 Bin 51 Riesling), he was in good humor, having just gone on a Manhattan clothes-shopping spree. The bulk of this year's wines come from the challenging 2017 vintage, but with the wide net Penfolds casts to source fruit, the winery seems capable of maintaining a remarkable degree of consistency. There are always a few wines from years on either side as well. Standouts this year include the dense, age-worthy 2016 St Henri Shiraz. This is a wine that never sees new, small-format oak, as it is aged in large oak vats. The 2017 RWT Shiraz (all Barossa Valley, all French oak) is a perennial favorite of mine, and it is reassuringly excellent. These wines differ stylistically from one another and from the flagship Grange, which is aged in new American oak hogsheads. This year's Grange release is the 2015, another strong effort. The biggest splash among this year's lineup is the debut of a new $1,700 Shiraz. The 2016 Bin 111A Shiraz is a blend of Clare Valley and Barossa Valley fruit previously ticketed for Grange, aged 18 months in new French hogsheads. It would be easy to dismiss it as another cynical marketing ploy, but it's yet another unique expression of Shiraz and the quality lives up to the lofty price tag. For the one-percenters lucky enough to snare a bottle or two, it'll provide immense pleasure for decades to come.

JAMES SUCKLING.COM Rating: 100 points *****
25 Jul, 2019 – This new Special Bin shiraz is stunning and has such wildly deep and dark fruit, in particular very rich dark cherries and plums and plenty of attractively spicy oak on offer here. Intense and packed with youthful fruit. There’s an entrancing build of really fine tannin, carrying pure, pristine and deep-set flavors of blackberries and ripe dark cherries. The finish is carried on incredibly long, muscular and velvety tannins. Such power and elegance, really setting a new style. This is exceptional. A glorious new rung at the top of the Australian wine ladder. 51% Clare, 49% Barossa, two single plots blended and matured in French oak for 18 months. Seductively drinkable now, but this will live for decades. Best from 2028.