Penfolds Reserve Bin A Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2024

Bin A is sourced from the Adelaide Hills. It enjoys full barrel fermentation, part of which is with natural yeasts, as well as regular bâtonnage and 100% malolactic. Maturation was for eight months in French oak barriques, half of them new and 20% just a year old. This vintage requires some time in the glass for Bin A’s free-spirited typicity to emerge. The wine is a straw lemon hue and more elegant than is usual. It is balanced and yet intense at all times. This is a quality Chardonnay, with hints of lemons and grapefruit, peaches and nutty, cashewy oak. There is a hint of gun smoke and minerality and, as it opens up with time in the glass, we see that richer, more exotic nature of Bin A. A brightness is always evident, as is the very fine acidity, all leading to a lingering finish. Worth giving it three or four years in the cellar and then enjoying over the next decade.