Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

Even if you were tasting this wine blind, your first tasting note would have to be, WOW! The scent sets the scene beautifully. There is an inherent complexity here. And balance. Each individual component melding as one: aromatic florals, vanilla pod, red berries, fennel seed emerging across a line of lightly smoked charcuterie.

In its youth, there’s a cut and thrust of tannin (the cut, the former) and oak (the thrust, the latter) which puts a taut scaffolding in place for a long, long future. It combines McLaren Vale smoothness, Coonawarra black-hearted, tannic intensity with a Barossan sweet and savoury core and, while Padthaway also plays a small part, you have to say that the big three regions own this wine. Blackcurrant pastille, tapenade, smoky oak, red currant, forest floor, sage/mint and pliable tannins bend to the will of the whole.  Bin 707 rarely looks so approachable, so young.