Ranked #10 of 56 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz from Barossa Valley
95/100
5 Stars
Huon Hooke
Deep, dark red/purple colour and a mysterious, foresty, profound and savoury complexity of aromas. Cabernet doesn't drive the wine and it seems androgynous, especially after the very varietal Bin 407. The palate is powerful, mightily intense and relatively high in acid. The wine is certainly noticeably more acidic than the other reds tasted at the Penfolds icon launch. It's a bit angular today. Very firm and tight, tense, and quite unready. (Higher than usual new oak: 53%)
Tasted: 06/09/2016
Drink: 2020 to 2041
96 Points James Halliday
First made in '60, and for long called ?poor man's Grange', a strange name for a $90 wine. It's always been a varietal and regional blend, once matured in hand-me-down Grange barrels, but no longer. There is much conjecture about the amount of Dom Perignon made each year, and the same is true of this wine. A bottle number could cause embarrassment. It's seriously good, its palate of black fruits, licorice, oak and earth held tight by tannins as only Penfolds can make. Drink to 2044.
James Halliday. November, 2021