Penfolds Bin 95 Grange 2008
Style: Red Wine
Varieties: Shiraz (98%), Cabernet Sauvignon (2%)
Closure: Cork
Penfolds Bin 95 Grange 2008
Camberwell
Burke Road
Camberwell VIC 3124
Australia
Producer: Penfolds
Country: Australia
Region: Multi Regional SA
Vintage: 2008
Critic Score: 100
Alcohol: 14.5 %
Size: 750 ml
Drink by: 2050
Penfolds Rewards of Patience tasting panel 2021 - 5/5 rating
Penfolds Bin 95 Grange Shiraz is Australia's most famous wine with a reputation for superb fruit complexity and flavour richness. It is the most powerful expression of Penfolds multi-vineyard, multi-district blending philosophy and is officially listed as a Heritage Icon of South Australia. One of the world's great wines.
"Tremendous power and depth of flavour; the tannins coat the mouth and the wine is robust and massive, with lashings of gripping but smooth/ripe tannins, all of it coming together superbly at the finish and aftertaste. A top-line Grange, and a good example of the more forceful style of Grange. It's a monster, which will seemingly live forever." Huon Hooke
The 2008 Penfolds Grange is a blend of 98% shiraz and 2% cabernet sauvignon from premium vineyards in the Barossa Valley, Clare Valley and Magill Estate. The wine was matured for 19 months in American oak hogsheads (100% new).
"Deep crimson. Beautiful dark cherry, blackberry pastille, dark chocolate and mocha aromas with sweet apricot and stone fruit notes. Generously supple and inky with ample blackberry pastille and blackcurrant fruits, fine dense chalky tannins, superb mid-palate buoyancy, underlying mocha notes and long fresh ripe sweet tannins. Finishes chocolaty firm with plenty of liquorice notes. A riper-style Grange with marvellous power and density from a classic Penfolds year. Drinking well, but will improve with time. Peak drinking 2025 to 2060.
Expert reviews
"Deep crimson. Beautiful dark cherry, blackberry pastille, dark chocolate and mocha aromas with sweet apricot and stone fruit notes. Generously supple and inky with ample blackberry pastille and blackcurrant fruits, fine dense chalky tannins, superb mid-palate buoyancy, underlying mocha notes and long fresh ripe sweet tannins. Finishes chocolaty firm with plenty of liquorice notes. A riper-style Grange with marvellous power and density from a classic Penfolds year." Penfolds Rewards of Patience tasting panel 2021 - 5/5 rating
"An utterly majestic Shiraz, sleek and seamless, brimming with ripeness on a framework that allows for grace and expressiveness in equal measure. The intensity of fresh blueberry and plum fruit holds attention until the nuances kick in, offering glints of exotic spice, coffee, cocoa, bay leaf and mint. Shows tremendous presence without a lot of weight, the tannins noticeable but not even close to getting in the way. A great wine now, with plenty of room to grow." Wine Spectator - 100 points
"Deep purple-black in color, the 2008 Grange puts forward a very complex nose packed with aromas of mulberries, layers of baking spices, cloves and cinnamon with nuances of minced meat, anise, potpourri and whiffs of dried mint and chocolate. Medium to full-bodied, taut and very spicy in the mouth, it shows touches of sandalwood and Chinese five spice complementing the layers of dark fruit flavors. It is framed by firm, grainy tannins and a refreshing acid line before finishing very long with aniseed and lingering blackberry preserves notes. This is clearly a wonderfully opulent and a magic vintage for this label. Drink it from 2018 to 2035+." Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, The Wine Advocate - 100 points
"2008 Grange took me by surprise. I was expecting a hulking, looming thing that harked back to the blockbusters of years passed. What I did not expect was a tasting note featuring 'purity' three times (even 'aching purity'), 'refinement,' even 'detail'. There is not an iota of heatwave effect here, but that's not the point. The point is, season aside, 2008 epitomises the modern face of Grange. Yes, this is still Grange as we know it, with its backdrop of high cocoa dark chocolate, its hints of coal steam and its definitive, monumental intensity. But there's a newfound overlay of brilliantly precise black fruit definition here, with perfectly ripe black plums, black cherries, blackberries and black pastilles all perfectly laid out in their gloriously intricate detail. Grange tannins are here to behold, charged with great endurance, yet super fine and somehow more lacy than ever. Persistence transcends time, lingering, undeviated, for minutes. Grange 2008 has an appeal and enticement already, and while it won't be the longest-lived Grange ever, it will confidently improve for decades and afford great joy along every bit of the way. For the record, 98% shiraz and 2% cabernet sauvignon from 89% Barossa Valley, 9% Clare Valley and 2% Magill Estate. Drink: 2028-2043." Tyson Stelzer, Wine Taste - 99 points
"The wine contains 2% cabernet sauvignon and 98% shiraz, 81% Barossa, the remaining shiraz from elsewhere in South Australia, and spent 19 months in new Am oak hogsheads in which it finished its fermentation. Forget any idea that it was influenced by the heatwave: the best Barossa Valley shiraz was picked before the end of February, almost a week before the heatwave arrived. Densely coloured, it has an ultra-complex bouquet, with black fruits/anise/licorice, easily dealing with the oak; a remarkable wine in every way. The balance, texture and structure are faultless, so much so that the wine achieves elegance now, many years before you would expect that quality to be commented on. Likewise, the palate has absorbed the oak in the same way as the bouquet. 14.3% alc; cork; Drink: to 2060." James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion - 98 points
"Deep crimson. Beautiful dark cherry, blackberry pastille, dark chocolate and mocha aromas with sweet apricot and stone fruit notes. Generous supple and inky with superb deep-set blackberry pastille, blackcurrant inky flavours, superb mid-palate buoyancy and long fresh sweet tannins. Finishes chocolaty firm with plenty of liquorice notes. Delicious riper-style Grange with marvellous power and density. Drink 2030-2060" Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal Verticals Penfolds Grange 2022 - 98 points
"This has all the size and weight you've come to expect from Australia's most famous wine. Huge fruit and huge oak combine in a full-bodied, richly textured package that delivers waves of toasted coconut, vanilla and intense dark berries yet remains embryonic more than five years after the harvest. That said, the texture isn't quite as tight or as fine as some other vintages—expect this to be early maturing by Grange standards, and best from 2020–2040." Joe Czerwinski, Wine Enthusiast - 98 points
"Very deep red, still with a good purple rim; enormously powerful roasted, hot-year bouquet with coconut from oak intermingled with fruitcake and chocolate. Tremendous power and depth of flavour; the tannins coat the mouth and the wine is robust and massive, with lashings of gripping but smooth/ripe tannins, all of it coming together superbly at the finish and aftertaste. A top-line Grange, and a good example of the more forceful style of Grange. It's a monster, which will seemingly live forever. (2% cabernet sauvignon)." Huon Hooke, The Real Review - 97 points
"Announces itself in the mouth. No mistaking the wine, its style. Smells of toast, pan juices, Asian spice, honey and soy. Tastes of black coal, sweet plums, seaweed, black tea and old dry earth. As old school as it always is but tamed, controlled, an old school character on its best behaviour. Australians love Grange because it's a straight shooter; there's nothing effete about it. It's a wine of conviction. It knows its game and it plays to its strengths. This 2008 is a release that illustrates perfectly what Grange is, and does. Importantly, style aside, it is a wine of enormous tannic power and quite remarkable length, and while we all might disagree on style we all agree that great wine is characterised by its length and, usually, by its ability to perform in the cellar. This wine has length in spades, and cellarability guaranteed. We know this because of its track record, but also because of its performance in the glass in front of us today; it tastes of the past, and will perform in the future." Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front - 96 points
Awards
Penfolds Rewards of Patience tasting panel 2021 - 5/5 rating
South Australia
South Australian is responsible for more than half the production of all Australian wine. It is home to more than 900 wineries across 18 wine regions. The regions are Adelaide Hills, Adelaide Plains, Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Coonawarra, Currency Creek, Eden Valley, Kangaroo Island, Langhorne Creek, McLaren Vale, Mount Benson, Mount Gambier, Padthaway, Riverland, Robe, Southern Fleurieu, Southern Flinders Ranges and Wrattonbully.
Many of the well-known names in the South Australian wine industry established their first vineyards in the late 1830s and early 1840s. The first vines in McLaren Vale were planted at Reynella in 1839 and Penfold's established Magill Estate on the outskirts of Adelaide in 1844.
South Australia has a vast diversity in geography and climate which allows the State to be able to produce a range of grape varieties - from cool climate Riesling in the Clare and Eden Vallies to the big, full bodied Shiraz wines of the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. Two of Australia's best-known wines, Penfolds Grange and Henschke Hill of Grace, are produced here. There is much to discover in South Australia for the wine lover.