Ranked #5 of 39 2012 Chardonnay from Adelaide Hills
95/100
5 Stars
Huon Hooke
Light straw-yellow hue. The nose is very flinty with stony minerality, struck-flint aromas, also chalky, especially in the mouth. Intense and fine, a fairly pared-back style, with quite high acidity and a driving, linear palate that is quite tight and nervy and has an early-picked tension. This is a baby and needs time.
Tasted: 19/02/2014
Drink: 2015 to 2024
98 Points James Halliday
If St Henri is the Penfolds red to buy this year, Bin A is the white. 2012 has produced a beautiful and characterful chardonnay of effortless energy, uniting grand complexity with crystalline finesse. Penfold''s Senior White Winemaker Kim Schroeter rates it alongside 2009 as one of the best, and I''m a believer. Bin A''s signature grand complexity of layered struck flint, charcuterie and bacon fat is here to behold in full measure, framed in epic structure and focus of fine-tuned lemon, white peach, grapefruit and fig. Acidity is pristine, high-strung, tightly honed and beautifully focused, with impeccable line, enduring persistence and finely mineral mouth feel. Hand picked, whole bunch pressed and wild fermented in 225 L barrels (53% new) on solids with 100% malolactic fermentation. Available 1 May 2014. Drink 2017 - 2027.
Source: James Halliday.
98 Points Tyson Stelzer
If St Henri is the Penfolds red to buy this year, Bin A is the white. 2012 has produced a beautiful and characterful chardonnay of effortless energy, uniting grand complexity with crystalline finesse. Penfold''s Senior White Winemaker Kim Schroeter rates it alongside 2009 as one of the best, and I''m a believer. Bin A''s signature grand complexity of layered struck flint, charcuterie and bacon fat is here to behold in full measure, framed in epic structure and focus of fine-tuned lemon, white peach, grapefruit and fig. Acidity is pristine, high-strung, tightly honed and beautifully focused, with impeccable line, enduring persistence and finely mineral mouth feel. Hand picked, whole bunch pressed and wild fermented in 225 L barrels (53% new) on solids with 100% malolactic fermentation. Available 1 May 2014. Drink 2017 - 2027.
Source: Tyson Stelzer.