Penfolds Reserve Bin 21A Chardonnay 2021

Even within its white wine collection, Penfolds has honed in on a single cool-climate region, specifically the Adelaide Hills, to showcase this always fascinating chardonnay expression. The practice is to work the wine as individual wild ferments in separate French oak barriques (50% new), so that there’s plenty of opportunity to develop all manner of secondary characters in the final cuvée. This 2021 iteration is still in a very tightly wound space where the nose is so fine and restrained that for now, drink at room temperature for at least some initial unfurling of all its elements. Flavour wise it also remains quite closed at the moment, with crunchy white stone fruits and citrus juices driving the line. There’s a lot hiding in here yet to come to the surface, and I suspect it will be a thrilling ride when that happens.