- Home
- ...
- 1st Classified
- PENFOLDS Bin 389 (Cork) Cabernet Shiraz, South Australia 2021 Bottle
penfolds
PENFOLDS Bin 389 (Cork) Cabernet Shiraz, South Australia 2021 Bottle
penfolds
PENFOLDS Bin 389 (Cork) Cabernet Shiraz, South Australia 2021 Bottle
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.
Wine Details
Classification and Scores
Taste Profile
Winery and Region
Delivery and Returns
All wine bought and sold through LANGTONS is held securely in our state-of-the-art, temperature-controlled National Warehouse, just outside of Melbourne, ensuring fast and efficient shipping to your nominated address Australia-wide.
Shipping Charges Within Australia
All orders placed are subject to a flat shipping fee as outlined below:
Metro Areas | Regional Areas |
$18.50 | $23 |
Find our more about our Delivery Options and Returns and Refunds Policy
Expert Review
Andrew Caillard MW
Deep crimson. Classical Bin 389 with intense blackberry, dark chocolate, mocha aromas and roasted almond, roasted chestnut, hint sesame nuances. Generous, smooth and velvety with ample blackberry, dark chocolate, roasted chestnut/ roasted walnut, grilled nut flavours, fine looseknit chocolaty tannins, beautifully integrated oak complexity and sinuous long fresh minerally saline acidity. Finishes velvety firm with a fine tannin plume. A superb vintage which will develop and improve further with bottle age. A keeper. 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 47% Shiraz, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra, Barossa Valley, Wrattonbully, Padthaway, 12 months maturation in seasoned and new 37% American oak hogsheads. Drink 2025 – 2045 14.5%
97 points, The Vintage Journal (July 2023)
Expert Review
Tyson Stelzer
Winemaker Andrew Baldwin observes that in a vintage as strong as 2021, parcels that might otherwise have been reserved for Grange and Bin 707 have found their way into Bin 389. The result is a monumental Bin 389 that unites all of the enduring structure and potential that underline the pedigree of this fabled label with the definition and precision of the fantastic 2021 season. It unites a core of pristine blackcurrant cabernet fruit with the plum skin of shiraz and a backdrop of fine-grained American oak that will see it through effortless decades in the cellar. Strictly for the long-term.
96 points, Tyson Stelzer (July 2023)
Expert Review
Ken Gargett
This is a truly great 389, perhaps the best ever. The Cabernet (53%) just dominates the Shiraz (47%). A blend of McLaren Vale, Coonawarra, Barossa Valley, Wrattonbully and Padthaway, the wine spends a year in American oak hogsheads, 37% new. Dark maroon in colour, the aromas include plums, mulberries, mocha, leather, tobacco leaves, dry herbs and hints of a freshly rolled cigar plus a touch of blueberries. There is finesse yet intensity, focus and direction, and balance. Great length and silky tannins. Notes of chocolate, licorice and blueberries emerge on the palate. A wine which lingers with intent suggesting ageing potential of twenty years plus. Wonderful stuff, the score that has every chance of going even higher. A cracker!
97 points, Wine Pilot (July 2023)
Expert Review
Jeni Port
Aromas to lose yourself in. The excellent 2021 vintage accentuates the moment to an almost overflowing of tobacco leaf, black fruits, and Australian bush scents with leaf, earth, briar, bramble and earth. And what spice: menthol, pepper, anise. The blend is Cabernet Sauvignon (53%) and Shiraz (47%). The result is a harmonious work in progress. Strike that, as with most Bin 389 you could – should you wish – immediately open and indulge. All the groundwork has been done. What a lovely generous mouthful of flavour, a mix of the sweet fruited and the savoury, the fine tannin-ed and the firm in structure. The wine’s remarkable run of consistency continues. Drink: 2023-2045
96 points, Wine Pilot (July 2023)
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.
