Penfolds Reserve Bin A Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2020

First came isolated frosts across the Adelaide Hills, followed by a cool November which led into terrible bushfires in December with significant loss of vines. By the time, harvest came in February, yields were down, naturally. But through it all, came a reserved, tense, Reserve Bin A (aka Bin 20A).

Interestingly, in past releases the wine has been associated with characters of white stone fruits, peach and nectarine (to quote previous releases). In 2020, an unusual year let’s face it; it is all about citrus, apple and pear with an inflection – no, make that a firmer presence – of leesy, bready, biscuity-ness. Don’t overchill and there’s a lovely lemon thyme character, too. You can almost imagine this chardonnay as a sparkling blanc de blancs, such is its fine line and delicacy. Oak – eight months in French barriques with 86% new – is nicely controlled, a binding agent lending a hand to the citrussy whole.

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