Penfolds CWT 521 Cabernet Sauvignon Marselan 2023

Marselan is one exciting addition to the Penfolds Chinese Wine Trial (CWT) programme, a French-bred cross of Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache that has taken to Chinese soils with success. Here, Marselan (11%) from Ningxia with its sweet, spicy fruitiness is the perfect foil for herbal-edged Cabernet sourced from the super high-altitude Shangri-La region in Yunnan province. A striking wine by any measure beautifully captured in lifted cassis, sweet stewed plum, blueberry, earth and herbs, a whiff of potpourri. Impressive, svelte, long and powerful palate flowing smoothly across the tongue and running long bringing a mix of earth, boot polish and leather savouriness to close. Tannins are super fine adding to the textural quality of the wine. Quite the sophisticate.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic