AsiaLIFE

I just love April. It’s a very special time of year – a time for remembrance, rejoicing and renewal. The harvesting of ripe winegrapes is on in earnest, or coming to a close in the southern hemisphere, promising new wines and new releases, writes Darren Gall.

Australians and New Zealanders commemorate their war heroes on the 25th – ANZAC Day. This is celebrated with dawn services, football matches, two-up games (a crude form of gambling involving tossing coins in the air and betting on the landed combinations), barbecues and libations. This is the time of year that Australia’s most famous winery and producer of its most famous wine – Grange – releases its Bin wines into the world market. The new arrivals have just turned up in Cambodia. Along with many wine lovers around the world, I eagerly await the annual release of the Penfolds Bin series. Grange may be the jewel in the Penfolds crown, but the Bin series remains its heart and soul. Since the first Bin was crafted by Max Schubert in 1959 the series has continued to grow and evolve. Each wine has carved its own unique place within the Bin family, which offers distinctive examples of Australia’s iconic varieties and blends.

2006 Penfolds Bin 28, Kalimna Shiraz
A 100 per cent Shiraz blend from selected vineyards throughout the famed Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and Langhorne Creek, the sweet plums, dark, sticky soy and chocolate aromas jump from the glass. A multi-layered palate with the balance of ripe fruits, brazen tannins and acidity indicates the wine’s superb cellaring potential. The Bin 28 is unashamedly a dry-grown, ripe and generously-flavoured Shiraz.

2007 Penfolds Bin 128, Coonawarra Shiraz
After an exceptionally dry winter the 2007 vintage saw the worst frosts on record in the cooler wine regions of Australia, resulting in a large drop in production. A youthful, spicy and quite inky Coonawarra Shiraz, this wine has a medium body and a deep crimson-mauve-purple colour with a mauve-purple hue. Its lifted nose of blackberry, plum, spice and violets, shows an impressive varietal character. The palate has a youthful, inky quality that is overlaid with liquorice, plum and spice with dark chocolate and black pepper in the background. With fine-grained tannins, it has an inky plum, spice and black pepper aftertaste.

2007 Penfolds Bin 138, Grenache, Mourvedre, Shiraz
The fruit for the 138 is sourced from some of Barossa’s old, low yielding vineyards to create this southern Rhône blend. The extremely dry (drought) conditions in the Barossa in 2007 led to a low yield of small berries packed with an incredible intensity of flavour. The perfumed Grenache aromatics of crushed raspberry juice, juniper berry, quince and pomegranate dominate this blend. Spicy Shiraz and inky Mourvèdre provide savoury notes, chalky tannins and dusty earth. A very enjoyable wine.

2006 Penfolds Bin 389, Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz
Created by the legendary Max Schubert – creator of Penfolds Grange – Bin 389 is often referred to as “Poor Man's Grange.” Components of the wine are matured in the same barrels that held the previous vintage of Grange. Made from a blend of 52 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 48 percent Shiraz the wine was matured for 12 months in 22 percent new American oak hogsheads, with the balance in older American oak. Major components were sourced from the Barossa Valley and Langhorne Creek, with parcels from Coonawarra and McLaren Vale. With an opaque black-crimson-purple colour with a black-purple hue, it has a perfumed nose of violets, spice, blackcurrant, cedar and blackberry. The palate flavours are more generous than the other Bin series of the current release, with plum, blackberry and blackcurrant, over a layer of cedar, spice and dark chocolate. It has a very peppery back palate and excellent weight and depth, fine dry-ish tannins and a very long aftertaste. Will go down as one of the great Bin 389s – a classic.

2006 Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon
The major components for this eminently quaffable Cabernet Sauvignon were sourced from Robe, Coonawarra and McLaren Vale, with smaller parcels from Langhorne Creek and the Barossa Valley. Redolent of a dark blackcurrant/prune jus over a sticky date or Christmas pudding, it retains a somewhat savoury juiciness. A beguiling texture – south-east chalk, sea-mineral (wet-stone) gravelly tannins and integrated oak – conspire to create a dense, muscular weave. No mint, no leafiness, this is a full-throttle, ample dark Cabernet, replete with a cassis thumbprint.