Penfolds Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz 2023
- 94
- $100
- Drink by: 2025-2040
Share
A very successful, sub-regional release from the heart of the Barossa, maturation is for 17 months, in a mix of French and American hogsheads, 29% one-year-old and 25% older French, and 20% one-year-old and 26% two-year-old American. Very successful for the vintage. A dark, blood red hue, this is a wine of power and concentration. There is oak evident but deftly handled. Expect integration to proceed until it is barely more than a whisper. The nose is redolent of coffee beans, plums, blackberries, mocha, soy, chocolate, spices, beef stock, cloves, dried herbs, licorice and a touch of mushrooms. The texture has that gorgeous Barossa creaminess to it. There is balance, focus and excellent length here, with fine satiny tannins. This will easily provide pleasure for the next fifteen years. Really good.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
