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PENFOLDS Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz, South Australia 2020 Bottle
penfolds
PENFOLDS Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz, South Australia 2020 Bottle
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About this wine
PENFOLDS Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz, South Australia
Bin 389 is the quintessential expression of the Penfolds red wine style. Typically it is fresh, generous and buoyant with ripe dark chocolate, dark berry fruit, beautifully extracted flavours, fine-grained tannins and underlying new oak characters. First produced in 1960, Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz is nicknamed “Poor Man’s Grange” or “Baby Grange” and is one of Australia’s great cellaring red wines. Bin 389 is matured in a combination of new and one and two year old American "ex Grange and Bin 707" hogsheads for 18 months. The best vintages can develop and improve for decades.
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Taste Profile
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Expert Review
Andrew Caillard MW
Deep crimson. Lovely blackberry, blackcurrant, dark plum aromas with roasted chestnut, chinotto, dark chocolate notes. Generously concentrated and beautifully integrated wine with plentiful blackberry, blackcurrant, fruit, fine slinky/chocolaty, hint al dente/bittersweet tannins, superb mid-palate volume, some inky complexity, lovely mocha/espresso oak notes and fresh long juicy acidity. Builds up claret firm with graphite minerally notes. Very impressive extract, density and torque. A reference Penfolds wine. McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley and Padthaway. 12 months maturation in American (33% new) and seasoned oak hogsheads. Drink 2025-2038. 14.5% alc
97 points, The Vintage Journal Penfolds Collection 2022 (July 2022)
Expert Review
Tony Love
Over the years this wine has been referenced as “Baby Grange” because it is matured in the same barrels that held the previous vintage’s Grange. The makeup of the wine is however totally different, in this outing a 51% cabernet sauvignon/ 49% shiraz blend. As such it perhaps is the most quintessential of all Penfolds’ South Australian reds. There certainly is plenty of magic in the wine, with cabernet leading the first sensory impressions while more robust, savoury shiraz sits under cover of darkness. The fruit profile is dark cherry and black forest cake, then later suggestions of roasted root vegetables rise to speak their piece. Palate structures are well knitted and solid, and already there are early signs of maturity. It’s a big wine now with plenty to look forward to in the decades to come.
97 points, Wine Pilot (July 2022)
Expert Review
Decanter
The superb quality of fruit allocated in this luscious blend – dubbed by many as 'baby Grange' – represents probably the best value to be found in the Penfolds portfolio, and is the shining star of the reds in the 2022 Collection. Its rich and plush mixture of plum, black cherry and mulberry flavours are slapped into line by a stern tannin drill sergeant, so that it finishes cleanly and absolutely correctly. Generous, approachable and complete, it tells a very satisfying wine story. Released at A$100/bottle.
97 points, David Sly, Decanter (June 2022)
Expert Review
Huon Hooke
Very deep, saturated red-purple colour, the bouquet is very 389: neither variety dominates and the cabernet component is ripe and of the less-aromatic style. (Very differnt to the Bin 407 cabernet style) Very concentrated and rich, gripping and powerful, with lashings of persuasive tannins and good length. Mouth-coating, tongue gripping tannins, but not unbalanced. A serous red wine indeed. (McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley, Padthaway; 51% cabernet, 49% shiraz)
96 points, The Real Review (June 2022)
Expert Review
Jeni Port
Five regions contributed to 389 last year. This year’s release returns to a trio of performers: McLaren Vale, Barossa and Padthaway. As usual, there’s a feature role for American oak. Bin 389 is always ready to go on release, arriving fully formed. The 2020 release is no different. A wine of quiet power that builds, gaining momentum, as it works its way across the palate. Earth, root vegetables, anise, blueberry, black fruits, vanilla, a lightly smoky oak are the staples. In other words, there is a strong foundation for a complex wine, a long-lived one at that. Keeps a trim presence throughout thanks to beautifully meshed tannins while exploring ripe, rich veins of fruit, texture and oak. Bin 389 never disappoints.
96 points, Wine Pilot (July 2022)
Expert Review
James Suckling
Very rich, ripe and intense, this has plenty of depth and is one of the strongest statements of Penfolds’ house style. Rich vanillin and sweetly spicy American oak on the nose, with chocolate, blueberry, violet, blackberry and iodine notes. The palate delivers quite approachable and supple texture, smoothly fleshy and inviting. Flavors of blackberry, blackcurrant and mulberry abound. Deep and ripe finish with nutty tannins to close. A blend of McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley and Padthaway. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
96 points, JamesSuckling.com (July 2022)
Expert Review
Erin Larkin
Looking in on the 389 can be "'can be," she says, parenthetically) a good insight into what we can expect from the upcoming Grange. Now, they are very different wines, no question, however, stylistically they have much in common and the illumination into the season that birthed the wines in each instance. Here, the 2020 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz has consummate polish and sleek tannins, imbued as they are with graphite, black tea, licorice and resin. The fruit is pure and black and chewy... gorgeous wine. And it lives for decades. This has always been a collector's dream and continues so through this vintage. Highly recommended.
96 points, Wine Advocate (July 2022)
Expert Review
Campbell Mattinson
Such a solid, svelte release, as seamless and accessible as I’ve seen a new-release Bin 389 though with the tannin and overall stuffing to go long term. There’s as much plum as blackcurrant here, as much finesse as grunt, though perhaps its most distinguishing trait is the exceptional length though the finish. The palate is plush, the finish is drenched in both flavour and tannin, and yet everything here feels meticulous.
96 points, The Wine Front (July 2022)
Expert Review
Jancis Robinson MW
51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Shiraz. A wine that’s apparently ‘very strictly allocated, as Bin 150 is. We can’t keep up with demand’, according to Gago. Fruit from McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley, Padthaway. 12 months in American oak hogsheads (33% new). TA 6.5 g/l, pH 3.61.
Intense, ‘purple fruit’ nose. Sweet start, very winning, more flattering than some of the earlier-poured wines in this tasting. But all this fruit is cocooned inside a firm structure. 14.5%
17.5 points, JancisRobinson.com (July 2022)
Expert Review
Angus Hughson
The 2020 Bin 389 is an iconic McLaren Vale, Barossa and Padthaway blend of Cabernet/Shiraz, made in a restrained but approachable style. It offers up bright, pure and primary Cabernet aromas of leafy cassis over a bed of blackberries, with reserved oak in good support. Shiraz then comes to the fore with plump peppery and mulberry flavours with delicious vitality and a backbone of ample sinewy tannins that support a lingering finish. A good but not great Bin 389.
92 points, Vinous (July 2022)
Expert Review
Tyson Stelzer
The fabled poise and endurance of Bin 389 elevate it above the surface of a hot, dry vintage in South Australia. The confidence with which this blend is engineered is something to behold. The fine-boned, enduring structure of cabernet (51%) meshes seamlessly with the black fruits depth of shiraz. Ever more classy American oak (33% new) lends more in structural scaffolding than flavour support. One for the cellar. Collectors, take note.
96 points (July 2022)
Penfolds
Penfolds is one of the world’s most celebrated winemakers with an enviable reputation for quality at every price level. Christopher Rawson Penfold began it all in 1844. A doctor, with an eye for medicinal winemaking, he and his wife, Mary sought a new life in Australia with a vine cutting and a bold vision. The family purchased Magill, now a suburb of Adelaide, and set about inventing tonics, brandies, and fortified wines made from grapes and Australian sunshine. The Penfolds House Style emerged from this craft of fortified wine production and blending.
The success of Penfolds has been driven by a lineage of visionary winemakers who pushed innovation to bold new heights. Max Schubert, the creator of Penfolds Grange, Dr Ray Beckwith and their team pioneered: major advances in yeast technology and paper chromatography; the understanding and use of pH in controlling bacterial spoilage; the use of headed down/submerged cap fermentation and the technique of rack and return; cold fermentation practices; the use of American oak as a maturation vessel and perhaps most critically, partial barrel fermentation. The use of American oak and barrel fermentation is considered traditional Barossa winemaking practice, in large part due to the work of Penfolds.
Today, the art of blending remains integral to the Penfolds House Style - a unique combination of highly defined fruit aromas, ripe tannins, richness, power and concentration. The most powerful expression of this is the flagship, Grange, now recognised as one of the most consistent of the world’s great wines. Similarly, Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz, first released in 1960, is now considered the quintessential Australian wine blend. Improved vineyard management, site selection and winemaking brought about the subsequent releases of Penfolds wines such as Bin 707 and Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon – both highly acclaimed and collected wines to this day.
The Penfolds Philosophy is the accumulation of nearly 180 years of shared knowledge and continual refinement. This began with Dr Christopher and Mary Penfold, continued with Max Schubert, Ray Beckwith and generations of Penfolds winemakers leading to the current winemaking team, led by Peter Gago. Their commitment to constantly improving their work, whilst honouring the winemaking techniques of their predecessors, contributes to the consistency of style and quality that Penfolds is known for around the world.
