Penfolds FWT 585 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Petit Verdot 2022
- 93
- $100
- Drink by: 2025-2042
Share
This is the fourth release of the French Wine Trial (FWT) sourcing Bordeaux Cabernet Sauvignon (56%), Merlot (41%) and Petit Verdot (3%). Where previous FWT releases have shown a degree of elegance, the 2022 reveals a firm, tannic structural side. Its drinking window extends accordingly. Lively and upfront in aromas of violet, spice fuel-ed black and red fruits, aniseed, bay leaf and background notes of cacao and vanilla. There is no shortage of flavour with a mass of dark fruits, cassis and blue fruits matched to dark, baking spices, herbals, dusty, chocolate cacao with savoury oak following through on the palate. While there is a juicy succulence to enjoy, it does go hand in hand with ripe, firm tannins. The dry, astringent finish confirms a wine with a little more attitude, more tension, than some previous releases. Give it time.
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.
