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  • Country ranking ?

    57
  • Producer ranking ?

    36
  • Decanting time

    4h
  • When to drink

    2020-2035
  • Food Pairing

    Lamb

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The Story

Bin 389 is often referred to as ‘Poor Man’s Grange’ or ‘Baby Grange’, in part because components of the wine are matured in the same barrels that held the previous vintage of Grange. First made in 1960, by the legendary Max Schubert, this was the wine that helped to build Penfolds solid reputation with red wine drinkers.

Combining the structure of Cabernet with the richness of Shiraz, Bin 389 also exemplifies Penfolds skill in judiciously ...

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Vintage 2018

AUSTRALIA: Very promising quality with the most optimistic reviewers declaring 2018 great in every region and for every variety. The more cautious view is that early frosts reduced yields, but that consistent good weather throughout the second half of the growing season actually resulted in great potential.

Barossa 2018 vintage to savor

The 2018 Barossa vintage was completed at the end of April 2018, with growers and winemakers satisfied...

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Tasting note

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Written Notes

Given how well Penfold’s do their blends, it is a little surprising there are not more in the Collection. A perennial favourite, 389 celebrates its 60th anniversary with this release. Time in American oak hogsheads, 38% new. 57% Shiraz, 43% Cabernet. An assortment of regions – McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley, Coonawarra, Padthaway, Robe and Wrattonbully.

Allow me to start these notes by confessing that Penfold's do supply us with an all-info booklet. I'm always careful to do all my tasting and notes before looking at it, so as to avoid preconceptions and the power of suggestion. It is unfailingly interesting to then compare notes to ascertain whether or not one is thinking along the same lines. In this case, Penfold's have included a tasting note they “heard” for this 389, though no attribution is offered.

"Petrichor aromas graduating to silkworm-eaten mulberry leaf". I can further confess that if I had tasted a thousand bottles of this wine, I would never have come up with that (I had to look up ‘petrichor’). Mulberries perhaps, but a silkworm-eaten leaf? Are they different from untouched leaves? What about some other Attenboroughesque moment when something else chows down on the leaf? Would that be different?

For me, as mundane as it may now sound, wonderfully aromatic with chocolate, blackfruits, new leather, spices, mud cake. Warm earth and black cherries. A wine of balance, complexity and serious length. An absolute star. Good intensity, a flick of underlying acidity. There is a sweet and sour aspect to the wine. The more time in the glass, the more emerged and the longer the wine seemed. A wine with a great future ahead. 96.

  • 96p

The 60th anniversary of Bin 389. It is a six-region 57/43% blend, matured in American hogsheads (38% new). A perennial favourite of mine, with great colour and a supple mouthfeel that gives the wine a touch of elegance, underlined by the fluid, flawless balance and length. 14.5% alc, screwcap 96 points, drink to 2040, $100

  • 96p

Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz (2018; AUD $100) is another sumptuous wine that shows more dominant cabernet than usual, and again considerate oak handling allows the fruit free expression. Long-term Bin 389 buyers complain about the price going out of their reach in recent years, but the fact remains that the wine is outstanding today, and fully justifies the ask.

  • 96p

Deep crimson. Intense pure blackcurrant, blackberry aromas with dark chocolate notes. Generously proportioned wine with dense inky cassis, blackberry mulberry fruits, plentiful chocolaty tannins, mocha espresso oak complexity, attractive mid-palate viscosity and superb mineral length. Finishes grainy firm. A classic powerful Bin 389 year with superb fruit complexity, density and attack. Should last the distance. Seal; screwcap 2025-2045 14.5% alc 98 points
 
An Australian wine tradition that rarely disappoints. The 2018 highlights exceptional sourcing and the beautiful partnership between cabernet sauvignon and shiraz where the wine represents far more than the sum of its parts. A landmark wine of the 2020 collection offering collectors and drinkers the quintessential Penfolds experience.
 
McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley, Padthaway, Coonawarra, Robe, Wrattonbully
 
Around 18 months in 38% new and 62% seasoned American oak hogsheads

  • 98p
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Information

Origin

Magill, South Australia

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