Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2023
- 92
- $130
- Drink by: 2025-2037
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Bin 407 is never my favourite red from the annual release – there is always better value, and more excitement, to be had elsewhere – but this is one of the better examples from recent vintages. The fruit is widely sourced, this time from Padthaway, Coonawarra, McLaren Vale, the Barossa Valley and Wrattonbully. An opaque black colour, the nose is all tar, graphite, axle grease, bay leaves, dark chocolate, soy, licorice, spices and blackberries, with hints of dried herbs intruding. Even a touch of raspberries. An intense style, it is perhaps a little straightforward, but a very good 407. Seamless, with fresh acidity and medium length, there is still noticeable vanillin oak here. A wine which is not giving us complexity at this stage, nor the suggestion it will emerge in the future, but it is what it is – full of flavour and a rather enjoyable wine. Enjoy over the next ten to twelve years. It may even surprise those prepared to cellar it for longer.
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.
