MAGNUMS of Penfolds Grange can be found by clicking on "MAGNUMS" in the menu bar on the left.  

Penfolds is probably the most extraordinary of the world’s wine brands with an enviable reputation for quality at every price level. The original Penfold was an English doctor who, in 1844, planted grapes at Magill (winery pictured), now a suburb of Adelaide. It is really only since the late 1940s that Penfolds has forged a reputation for red wine.

Penfolds traditional reds are mostly multi-regional blends. The result is a litany of consistently high-quality wine. Overall, the style is about highly-defined fruit aromas, fruit sweetness, ripe tannins, richness, power and concentration. Penfolds Grange, Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon, St Henri, Magill Estate and Bin 389 Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz are all strongly sought after on the investment market. Even a recent wine such as Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon (poor man’s Bin 707 perhaps?) is brilliantly made and already showing impressive ageing ability. Penfolds RWT Barossa Shiraz is an excellent wine, but has yet to prove itself on the secondary market. Both Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz and Bin128 Coonawarra Shiraz can hardly be described as little wines, even though they are at the lower end of the Penfolds hierarchy. Koonunga Hill, a wine of modest ambitions, has been so successful that the price had to go up. In its place is Rawson’s Retreat.

Winemakers have been allowed to experiment. It is this quasi-commercial research and development program that has enabled Penfolds to achieve such awesome levels of quality and reliability. Penfolds Bin 60A, a 1962 blend of Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon and Kalimna Shiraz, has often been described as the greatest red wine ever made in Australia. Bin 620 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1966 and Bin 7 of 1967 were also well sought after. The most famous recent experimental wines are Bin 80A-1980, Bin 820-1982, Bin 90A-1990 and Bin 920-1990, each reflecting the original styles of the 1960s. The 1996 Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon is also an impressive one-off wine. There have also been releases of white wines of varying quality. The much-hyped Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay is a delicious wine with nutty complexity and creaminess, but over-valued.

Penfolds is the most reliable wine on the secondary market, although vintage specificity has become increasingly important.

Notes from Andrew Caillard MW