Power and Promise - the 2017 Penfolds Collection & the new g3
The annual Penfolds release in Adelaide at the Magill Estate in late October always sees stars ascend and fall, most often as a result of vintage swings and roundabouts. And within this year’s array of seventeen different wines, there’s a span in styles and age of release covering 2017 back to 2013.
The good news is that the core of these releases are clustered around the stunningly high quality 2015 vintage. Ten wines including the mainstay red Bin wines right up to Magill Estate and Bin 707 are all from 2015 and these are in career best form.
Yattarna chardonnay 2015
In the white department, the Bin 51 riesling 2017 has a fineness and purity to it that really speaks to the quality of Eden Vally and its innate gift of delivering refined and scintillating riesling wines. The rock star trio of chardonnays are in superb shape with the usually finer Bin 311 arriving with extra weight and flesh in vintage 2016.
The Reserve Bin A 2016 is a superb wine once again, a wine I’ve often found to hold a torch to the more highly priced Yattarna which is from vintage 2015 this year. From the moment I first tasted the 2015 Reserve Bin A I’ve been locked in keen anticipation of Yattarna 2015 and it dies not disappoint. Make no mistake, this is the best Yattarna to date, I have scored it on par with the 2012 (98 points) but it is stylistically more refined, more resolved and more composed.
For those of you that have the 2014 Reserve Bin A in your collection, the taste-off against 2015 Yattarna wil be a kind of vinous MMA headliner. Whilst they’re showy appeal means they’re thrilling drinks now, these two will go toe to toe for many years. They’re both powerfully built and have plenty of gas in the tank.
The powerband of the collection is a run of 2015 reds starting at the Bin 138 – easily the best version of this wine to date. It’s heartening to see Penfolds embrace a regional expression with such conviction. After a stunning 2014, the 2015 Bin 128 is again exceptional, delivering the sort of measured power which is a long standing hallmark of Coonawarra.
Grange 2013
Bin 150 sings loud in the 2015 vintage with richness and moody depth of fruit, a simpatico of the Barossa’s bolder terroir and Penfolds’ knack at crafting full-bodied reds. Dittp the 2015 RWT, taking a more circumspect approach in the oak department but embracing the opportunity of the vintage to deliver additional grunt on the palate. The 2015 Bin 389 is a standout, a wine that is fast becoming one of the largest volume runs in this collection and improving in quality along the way. That’s a huge win.
Magill Estate has done an extraordinary thing in vintage 2015, delivering a level of richness and concentration that makes this a standout release from Magill. And finally Grange 2013 has the hallmarks of a good Grange. It doesn’t have the power and class of 2010 or 2012, but it has unquestionable prowess and depth, reminiscent of the 2009 vintage and certainly worthy of your collection. Still waiting to taste the Penfolds G3, which his a blend of three different vintages of Grange – 2008, 2012 and 2014.
Nick Stock, contributing editor
(We may have been some of the last top wine critics to taste the Penfolds g3, the three vintage blend of Grange, but as the saying goes, better late than never! The g3 red is phenomenal underscoring the balance and power of the new age Granges and adding an incredible drink-ability to the package. It’s a blend of 2008, 2012 and 2014. I tasted the red with winemaker Peter Gago in an undisclosed place and he wouldn’t give me the exact blend of the wine. “It’s not something you can replicate at home with the different vintages of Grange,” he half joked. The red reminds me of great bottlings of the Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial, the multi-vintage blends of the great Spanish estate, but it has the precision and purity of #realaussie wines. 100 points. Only 1,200 bottles of the g3 were made, and they sold out in two days. They sold for about $2,300 a bottle, making g3 one of the most expensive young wines on the market. Stay tuned for g4 in a few years. Updated November 8, 2017)
James Suckling, editor