Penfolds Bin 28 Shiraz 2019
- 92
- $50
- Drink by: 2024 - 2032
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Originally, this wine came from fruit from the famous Kalimna vineyard, purchased by Penfold’s in 1945. The first vintage was 1959. These days, it is multi-vineyard and indeed, multi-regional – McLaren Vale, Barossa, Wrattonbully and Padthaway. A year in mature American oak hogsheads. Opaque colour, deep purple. At this early stage, this wine seems tighter and more closed than the 128. Black fruits, deeper and more concentrated, more chunky. Some soy sauce notes, truffles, warm earth. Good concentration. A wine looking for a big steak to match it, but be in no hurry – this has ten to fifteen years ahead. Good acidity and length. Real power, firm tannins. Really needs time in the cellar. Curiously, the longer it spent in glass, the more it seemed to go back into its shell. Time needed.
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.
