Every Australian winelover will surely be aware of just how much Penfolds love to release special wines, whether they have regional, varietal or historical significance. It would be fair to say that these wines won the trifecta. The first release in the Superblend series was from the 2018 vintage. One might have expected that they would replicate the exercise with at least the 2021 vintage, but instead they have gone to another very fine year, 2022, for the second release. Who knows when we will see the third release in the series (well, no doubt Penfolds do, but they keep secrets far better than most intelligence services – looking at you, Pete H). The wines are basically two different versions of the same theme. They are high quality examples of the great Aussie red blend, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, a style with which Penfolds has extensive experience, perhaps even to the extent of making the wine considered by many to be the greatest ever Australian red, the famous 1962 Bin 60A.

To make these Superblends, Penfolds went to two very famous wines available today, Grange and 707, and the winemakers were allowed to take some of the fruit destined for those wines. Needless to say, production of these two wines is incredibly limited (winemakers are almost inevitably generous people, but they are not stupid and giving up that fruit would not have come easy). It means that this was very much a multi-regional wine, with contributions from a number of districts, including the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Padthaway and Coonawarra.

Penfolds Superblend 802.A Cabernet Shiraz 2022
95 Points

For 802.A, the components were aged separately in new American oak hogsheads prior to blending. It was at this stage that the two wines trod different paths. The blend is 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 41% Shiraz. Deep maroon with a crimson rim, this is a richly flavoured style, plenty of grip and length. There are notes of licorice, cloves, blackcurrants, warm earth, mulberries, chocolate and cassis. The oak has left pleasing hints of vanilla. This is finely balanced with excellent focus. It has serious length. There is noticeable grip at the end, with powdery, chalky tannins, a wine very much in its early days. Expect this to provide pleasure for at least the next twenty years.

Penfolds Superblend 802.B Cabernet Shiraz 2022
96 Points

In a sense, these two wines are Siamese twins torn apart. Identical fruit, hence contributions from regions such as the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Padthaway and Coonawarra again, was used for this wine – indeed, at this stage, they are the same wine – but the components were combined immediately after vintage, rather than down the track. The wine then spent eighteen months maturing in French oak hogsheads, 54% of which were new, the remaining 46 percent one-year-old.While there might only be the proverbial wafer-thin margin in it, this was my preference of the two wines. For me, the French oak provides a freshly more refined and elegant style. Superbly balanced, with serious length through to satiny tannins, the texture is supple and seductive. Dark magenta with a purple edge, the nose is all about dark flavours. We have blackberries, soy, cloves, licorice, mocha, bruised plums, cassis, coffee beans, graphite and dark chocolate. There is a fine line of acidity running the length and the wine finishes with just as much intensity as it began. As with its sibling, one can expect at least twenty years of pleasure ahead. 

Each retails for $900, or can be purchased as a gift set for $1,800.