Penfolds Icon Series Tasting

[Skeeter]

Hey, all. Long time, no post. Don't worry, I haven't gone teetotal or anything. Just busy with work... namely 3 part-time jobs hocking wine in different ways and places. (Cellar door, retail shop counter monkey and mail-order wine club phone jockey.) Not to mention raising my first offspring. He's awesome.

But I had to post the notes from my first "really expensive Aussie wine" tasting... the new release (and some older vintages)of the new Luxury Bin wines. Let's get to it.

2004 Yattarna Chardonnay: Intense, oaky nose with lots of vanilla and toasted nut characters. Beautifully rich on the plalate with cashew overtones. Lots of life left in this one, but already drinking superbly.

2006 Yattarna Chardonnay: A more closed nose than the '04, leading to a more elegant, citrusy wine. Very long and layered, with a little creaminess starting to show already. Nice stonefruit flavouyrs, but it really needs some time to show off it's true potential.

2005 St. Henri Shiraz: The "old-schooler" of the Penfolds range. Concentrated dark berries and aniseed leading to a deep mix of flavours. Slightly smoky, lightly spiced and with a very long, complex finish. Well-balanced tannins from the big ol' hogshead they mature it in.

2004 RWT Shiraz: Sweet-edged but earthy with a little roasted meat characters to my taste. Beautiful spice notes back up the berries, long and lingering. As with everything we tried, still an infant, though.

2006 RWT Shiraz: About ten years too young, methinks. Long, lean and with a very drying finish. Great nose on this one, but if you coluld transplant it onto the more open body of the '04 I'd be a happy man.

2006 Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon: Holy (expletive deleted), this is a good wine. Masses of concentrated blackcurrant, blackberries, dark cherries and woodsmoke. Fanastic flavour blend of sweet ripe fruit and plenty of oak giving some nice mocha highlights. Nice tannic bite on first sampling. With time in the glass it gives more and more... even some flinty, slatey characters start to emerge. One to decant and ponder over, or cellar for a decade or two.

20o2 Grange: Intensely perfumed with lots of spice and liquorice. Really invinting aromas. Pretty mellow on the palate a the moment, with the fruit seeming to be hovering shyly off in the distance. Needs a ton of time to let the flavours catch up with the smell, methinks.

2004 Grange: You can taste the potential on this one, all right. Piutch black, very closed nose that required RSI-inducing glass swirling to coax much out of it. Amazing body, however, full of sweet, ripe plum and berry flavours with hints of coffee. Very complex and rich. Once again, tack the '02's nose on there and it's pretty much perfect.


There you have it. Without the benfit of much cellaring, for me the Chardys are drinking the best at the moment. In 2020? Well, You'll have to tell me. Gods knows when I'll be able to afford any of those bad boys on my wage. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]