penfolds
PENFOLDS St. Henri Shiraz, South Australia 2018 Bottle
About this wine
PENFOLDS St. Henri Shiraz, South Australia
Grange and St Henri once were equals. But as Grange's fame grew, St Henri was eclipsed. Now St Henri is again re–emerging from the shadow of Grange. Matured in large, old vats that impart little or no oak character, St Henri is Shiraz au naturel. '…a wine of effortless, refined persistence', says Tyson Stelzer, '…with a silky, supple mouth feel and yet somehow still firm and enduring'. Says James Halliday: 'A great St Henri that will come into its own in a bare minimum of 10 years, and live long thereafter'.
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Taste Profile
Technical Aspects
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Expert Review
Andrew Caillard MW
Deep crimson. A beautiful St Henri vintage. Gorgeously seductive blackberry, mulberry, dark cherry, sweet plum aromas with dark chocolate, graphite, roasted walnut notes. Inky and sinuous palate with plentiful ripe blackberry, mulberry fruits, fine looseknit chalky tannins, superb mid-palate viscosity and underlying chinotto, roasted walnut notes. A standout vintage with superb middle-weight stature, fruit complexity and mineral length. Lovely to drink now but wait a few years to allow further development. Seal; cork 2025 – 2040 14.5%
99 points (July 2021)
Expert Review
Tyson Stelzer
Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Port Lincoln, Robe, Padthaway, Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills fruit. Matured 12 months in 50+yo vats. The effortless, unassuming self-assuredness of St Henri holds a unique and beloved place in the assemblage of Penfolds heroes, and 2018 marks a particularly special release. Accomplished, spicy, glossy black fruits of grand integrity unfold to magnificent effect in the glass, contrasting a fine-boned frame of rigid yet graceful, powder-fine tannins that carry a finish of long-lingering line and alluring appeal. I look forward to spectating from the sidelines as its fruit slowly unfurls over the decades to come. An adorable St Henri that exemplifies all that this label stands for.
97 points, Wine Companion (July 2021)
Expert Review
Huon Hooke
Deep, bright purple/red colour, young for its age, and leaves a residue in the swirled glass. The bouquet is very rich and multi-layered, sweetly fruit-ripe and balancing spicy, earthy-terrestrial and dark-fruit characters superbly. The palate is very full-bodied, but softly plush and lushly fruited, the sooty and graphitey tannins leaving a long-lingering savoury impression. A lasting impression of great elegance. The tannins are fine, abundant and persistent, in harmony with the totality. A very complex and high-potential St Henri. (Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Port Lincoln, Robe, Padthaway, Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills. Aged 12 months in 50+ year-old oak vats)
97 points, The Real Review (June 2021)
Expert Review
Campbell Mattinson
It’s a fruit-filled St Henri. It’s immediately impressive, which isn’t exactly the St Henri way, but no one’s complaining. Cocoa, coffee grounds, rich sweet plums, soy and sweet, aged meat. Licorice straps too, black, fresh and laid on. This is the kind of St Henri that you can drink young, it doesn’t need it’s normal ten-year rule, and yet it’s future will be brilliant. This is a St Henri to buy.
95+ points, The Wine Front (July 2021)
Expert Review
Josh Raynolds
Dark, bright-rimmed violet color. A wild, highly complex bouquet evokes spice-tinged black/blue fruits, pipe tobacco, savory herbs, potpourri and olive paste. Weighty and yet energetic in style, offering mineral-driven bitter cherry, cassis, chewing tobacco and exotic spice flavors that turn sweeter through the back half. Round, slowly building tannins give framework to a very long, smoky finish that echoes the cherry and tobacco notes.
95 points, Vinous (July 2021)
Expert Review
Jancis Robinson MW
Full bottle 1,520 g. Fruit from Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Port Lincoln, Robe, Padthaway, Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills. Matured for 12 months in >50-year-old vats.
Just penetrable purple with lots of blue tinges. Rich, ripe, complex nose that beckons you in to the glass. Amazingly there is some real freshness to this wine, even thought there are other elements to it that remind me of a liqueur. It's certainly a hit, with both immediate appeal and obvious potential for long ageing. Long and rather glorious without being too hot or weighed down by alcohol. No shortage of tannins but the fruit stands up to them.
17.5+ points, JancisRobinson.com (July 2021)
Expert Review
Nick Stock
A great St. Henri and, although multi-regional, this is very much a wine that speaks of the Barossa Valley, with aromas of ripe blackberries and red plums that are so fresh, together with tobacco, young-leather, earth, chocolate, coal-smoke and tarry accents. Effortless depth on the palate with summer berries, framed in fine, alabaster-like tannins that are underscored with discreet power. So long and captivating. A blend of Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Port Lincoln, Robe, Padthaway, Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills. Drink over the next decade or more.
99 points, JamesSuckling.com (July 2021)
Expert Review
Decanter
A shift in emphasis for St Henri, with its gaze fixed on depth and seriousness rather than its familiar comforting embrace. With no new oak, it’s always a fruit-driven statement, but this time the rich, red earthy tones are clouded over by a deep well of purple and blue fruit flavours. As a result, it appears to have a broader frame than before, finishing a bit short for a wine of this stature, but still with lots of pleasing savoury grip on the finish.
93 points, David Sly, Decanter (June 2021)
Expert Review
Joe Czerwinski
The 2018 St Henri Shiraz is a terrific effort, perhaps rivaling the top-flight wines under this label in 1976 and 1986. Remarkably fine and silky in texture yet simultaneously dense and concentrated, it showcases the amazing fruit harvested in 2018. Boysenberry, mulberry and mocha shadings all swirl together effortlessly in a whorl of full-bodied elegance, finishing long and effortless. Mainly Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale, it includes smaller amounts of fruit from Port Lincoln, Robe, Padthaway, Clare Valley and the Adelaide Hills, all aged 12 months in large old wooden vats.
97 points, Wine Advocate (July 2021)
Expert Review
Ken Gargett
St Henri is, for me, one of the least consistent wines in the annual Collection. By that I mean, sometimes it absolutely soars above those around it. Other times, it just doesn’t seem to be able to get off the ground to the extent that such a much-loved and famous wine should. This vintage is sourced from the Barossa, McLaren Vale, Padthaway, Port Lincoln, Robe, the Clare Valley and the Adelaide Hills. 12 months in those fifty plus year-old vats.
For me, this is the wine of the entire release. An extraordinarily good St Henri and I could not encourage winelovers to fill their cellars with this wine more strongly which will comfortably sit with 2010 and 2012. I have no doubt that in years to come, it will be considered as one of the greatest St Henri’s ever made. It really is that good.
Colour is black and purple. The aromas kick off with cloves and black olives. Dark chocolate, mulberries, cassis, leather, hints of tobacco leaves, truffles, beefstock and blackberries. Power and concentration. What is not to love? Right on form. Complex, balanced, very long and generous. Abundant silky tannins. This is perfectly structured. Balance is the key. The balance allows the wine to exhibit Audrey Hepburn elegance and Arnie Schwarzenegger power. This has decades ahead. A great St Henri.
99 points, Wine Pilot
Expert Review
Jeni Port
St. Henri is always welcoming, a warm and familiar flavour that resonates almost without fail. There’s a soft generosity to the 2018, no doubt due to a warm-hot summer across the seven South Australian regions that contribute fruit to the blend.
Black cherries and berries, spiced stewed plums, licorice, turned earth. Has an old Australian dry red feel to it that’s mighty attractive, a reminder when reds were aged in old oak, in this case we’re talking 12 months in 50-year-old oak vats. It’s a slow-paced wine, of violet, aniseed, prune, leather and earth. Savouriness builds, tannins come to the fore as the wine moves across the tongue towards a long finish. So, so easy to enjoy right now. Cellar if you can.
96 points, Wine Pilot
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.
