Penfolds St Henri Shiraz 2018

St. Henri is always welcoming, a warm and familiar flavour that resonates almost without fail. There’s a soft generosity to the 2018, no doubt due to a warm-hot summer across the seven South Australian regions that contribute fruit to the blend.

Black cherries and berries, spiced stewed plums, licorice, turned earth. Has an old Australian dry red feel to it that’s mighty attractive, a reminder when reds were aged in old oak, in this case we’re talking 12 months in 50-year-old oak vats. It’s a slow-paced wine, of violet, aniseed, prune, leather and earth. Savouriness builds, tannins come to the fore as the wine moves across the tongue towards a long finish. So, so easy to enjoy right now. Cellar if you can.

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