St Henri Shiraz 2017 Penfolds

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<10 tasting notes

97p by Pekka Nuikki / Editor of the Fine Wine Magazines and Champagne Magazine
94p by Ken Gargett
96p by Huon Hooke / BWW2024 Finalist
95p by Andrew Caillard MW / BWW2024 Finalist

Tasting note

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Written Notes

St Henri being such a different style of wine to most of the Collection, it is always a wine which attracts considerable attention. Overwhelmingly Shiraz, just a 3% dollop of Cabernet, it hails from McLaren Vale, the Barossa Valley, Eden Valley and Port Lincoln. The difference between this and so many of the Penfold's reds is that this wine spends a year in very large, very old oak vats. These vats are more than half a century in age. It means that the wine imparts no evidence of oak and is usually a more moderate, more subtle, more elegant style of wine. And so it proved here. A fine St Henri.

Florals, herbs, spices, red fruits. Beautifully fragrant. Some black olive notes and black currants emerge. The silkiest of tannins. Finely balanced. A wine that will age gracefully for many years. The team at Penfold's refer to it as ‘polished’, an apt descriptor. 94.

It is worth mentioning that the annual release of St Henri tends to offer more highs and lows than most in the Collection. A wine like the 2010 St Henri closely rivalled even the magnificent Grange of that year. 1990, 1996 and 2012 are other stars. Other times, they can fall well short. For the record, there is already hype emerging about how good the 2018 St Henri is, but we’ll have to wait a year to confirm that.

- Ken Gargett

St Henri (2017; AUD $135) is, as usual, one of the most charming wines in the range and the bottle somehow always empties the quickest. Very ripe blackberry fruit, tar and graphite, concentrated, a wine of great complexity and completeness.

- Huon Hooke / BWW2024 Finalist

Deep crimson. Intense blackberry, mulberry roasted walnut aromas with herb garden, star anise notes. Inky textured wine with pure blackberry, mulberry fruits fine supple/ velvety tannins, lovely mid-palate generosity and underlying roasted walnut notes. Finishes brambly firm with plentiful espresso dark berry fruits. Very seductive and beautifully balanced St Henri with classic buoyant fruits and animated tannin ripeness. Lovely drinking now but keep for a while. Seal; screwcap 2024 – 2034 14.5% 95 points

A lovely traditional multi-sourced Australian maturation style that offers the complete Penfolds story and intrigue in a bottle! This should develop very well with further bottle age.

Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Eden Valley, Port Lincoln

Aged for 12 months in very old (50 years+) oak vats

- Andrew Caillard MW / BWW2024 Finalist

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