Bin 798 RWT Shiraz 2018 Penfolds

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96p by Christer Byklum/ BWW2024 Finalist
98p by Pekka Nuikki / Editor of the Fine Wine Magazines and Champagne Magazine
97p by James Halliday / BWW2024 Finalist
18p by Jancis Robinson MW / BWW2024/Best Wine Critic of the World
97p by James Halliday / BWW2024 Finalist
98p by Ken Gargett
98p by Huon Hooke / BWW2024 Finalist
99p by Andrew Caillard MW / BWW2024 Finalist

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Written Notes

Penfolds Bin 798 RWT Shiraz 2018 / Already elegant and refined, but also showing a succulent side, featuring creamy notes of maraschino cherry, raspberry coulis and fresh pomegranate at the core. Super intense and well balanced. Accents of sage, tobacco and espresso come in on the finish. The finish, framed by softly dusty and supple tannins, suggests a wine capable of at least two decades of positive evolution. This is surprisingly approachable now.

- Pekka Nuikki / Editor of the Fine Wine Magazines and Champagne Magazine

In recent vintages, Penfold's have finally conceded that we are perhaps beyond the trial stages with this wine (‘RWT’ stands for Red Winemaking Trial’), with more than twenty vintages in the cellar. They now feature ‘Bin 798’ on the label. 100% Barossa Shiraz. 16 months in French oak hogsheads, 64% of which were new and remaining 36% a year in age. Worth noting that Gago has said that as good as 2018 was as a vintage, the Grange required considerable work to get right (“it is about what you leave out, not what you put in”), whereas both the 2018 RWT and 2018 St Henri, the latter to be released next year, “made themselves”.

Tight, complex, well-structured and with such impressive oak integration that there is almost no sign of it. More black fruits over red, but so much more than that. Chocolate, licorice, cloves. Good acidity, satiny tannins and great length. What is really exciting is the way the wine maintains its intensity throughout that long finish. It was also somewhat reminiscent of a great Burgundy in the way that there was an explosion of flavours of the finish, very like the famous yet so often elusive Pinot Noir peacock’s tail. A brilliant RWT (or Bin 798). 97-98. The following day, the palate seemed even more seductive. 98.

- Ken Gargett

Magnum. Ruby. Blackberries, anise, spices, liquorice, rich and fruit driven, vanilla, detailed, intense nose. Fresh acidity, ripe tannins, dark fruits, anise, spices, blackberries and cassis, detailed and layered, intense and long. 96

- Christer Byklum/ BWW2024 Finalist

The 2018 RWT Bin 798 Barossa Shiraz (97 points, $200) debuted in ’00 with the release of the ’97 vintage. Someone pointed out that Penfolds, a paragon of shiraz and of the Barossa Valley, didn't make a single Barossa shiraz. The winemakers rectified the lack, using 18 months maturation in 100 per cent French oak (66 per cent new). It's flashy, it's opulent, its depth of black fruits nonchalantly deal with the thrust of oak and tannins. Like Grange, give it 10 years’ rest.

- James Halliday / BWW2024 Finalist

The initials RWT stand for ‘Red Winemaking Trial’, the name given to the project internally when developmental work began in 1995. Naturally, now no longer a ‘trial’, RWT Shiraz was launched in May 2000 with the 1997 vintage. The alphanumeric Bin designation 798 was bestowed upon the wine from the 2016 vintage. Its style is opulent and fleshy, contrasting with Grange, which is more muscular and assertive. RWT is made from fruit primarily selected for its aromatic qualities and plush texture. RWT wines are built for the long haul, with the precision, concentration and balance to age for many years. TA 6.7 g/l, pH 3.59. Aged for 16 months in French oak hogsheads (64% new and 36% one-year-old). Rainfall in autumn was below average, a trend that continued into the early weeks of winter with only 25% of the long-term average achieved in June. Increased rainfall occurred in the second half of winter, with vines entering the growing season with moisture profiles well into the root zone, down to one metre. Conditions favoured canopy development in spring, initially dry before plentiful rainfall in November. Temperatures warmed substantially through spring boosting vine growth and rushing the vines through flowering. Summer was dry, with no recorded major rain events. This carried into January with a heat spike around veraison causing vines to stall, pushing the start of vintage out by a week or so. The warm, dry weather carried into autumn, setting up an Indian summer with favourable conditions for ripening grapes. A very strong vintage for Barossa Valley Shiraz.
Lustrous dark purplish crimson. Smell of rather damp oak(!) to me. Very distinctive! And certainly no longer a trial. Camphor and very obvious ripeness on the nose. Round and very gently handled. I could almost drink this tonight! Transparent and lively. Tastes as though it has been moved along the spectrum a bit further from the Grange concentration model. Appetising and dry on the end. Almost as light as claret-like in build. A charmer. Great balance.

- Jancis Robinson MW / BWW2024/Best Wine Critic of the World

Deep crimson. Ethereal pure blackberry pastille roasted chestnut mocha aromas with hint ginger notes. Voluminous and animated wine with dense saturated blackberry dark chocolate fruits, plentiful fine velvety tannins and superb integrated roasted chestnut, mocha vanilla oak complexity. Finishes chocolaty firm. Elemental, powerful and seductive with years ahead of it. Should develop into a classic. Seal; Cork Drink 2025-2045 14.5% alc 99 points

Arguably the most aromatic, complex, generous and balanced Bin 798 RWT vintage of all time. A great Barossa Shiraz with brilliant cellaring potential.

16 months in 64% new and 36% one-year-old French oak hogsheads

- Andrew Caillard MW / BWW2024 Finalist

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