Penfolds Reserve Bin A Chardonnay 2017
Penfolds-Reserve-Bin-A-Chardonnay-2017

Penfolds Reserve Bin A Chardonnay 2017

Sale price$125.00
Adelaide Hills, South Australia, Australia

Style: White Wine

Variety: Chardonnay

Closure: Screwcap

⦿‎ ‎ 9 in stock
Usually ready in 2-4 days

Penfolds Reserve Bin A Chardonnay 2017

Camberwell

, usually ready in 2-4 days

Burke Road
Camberwell VIC 3124
Australia

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Producer: Penfolds

Country: Australia

Region: Adelaide Hills

Vintage: 2017

Critic Score: 98

Alcohol: 12.5%

Size: 750 ml

Drink by: 2030


A sublime chardonnay. Sheer magic - Huon Hooke

Trophy, Best Wine of Show - 2018 Royal Sydney Wine Show
Trophy, Best White Wine of Show - 2018 Royal Sydney Wine Show

Trophy, Best Chardonnay of Show - 2018 Royal Sydney Wine Show
Penfolds Rewards of Patience tasting panel 2021 - 5/5 rating
James Halliday Top 100 Wines of 2018 

Penfolds Reserve Bin A Chardonnay was first released in 1994, with fruit sourced from the Adelaide Hills and Tumbarumba. It has since evolved into a wine that is now a distinctive, single-region wine from the Adelaide Hills. Fruit is sourced from 10 key vineyards, all owned by independent growers. "The Reserve Bin A Chardonnay has all the great characters of Grand Cru Chardonnay, but it's very much from South Australia."  Kym Schroeter, Penfolds White Winemaker.

"Generous and creamy with grapefruit, apricot, white peach stone fruit flavours, light marzipan, flinty notes and underlying savoury oak complexity; all intertwined with fine lacy textures, crisp acidity and superb mineral length. This is absolutely at the cutting edge of Australian Chardonnay. An exquisite balance of fruit definition, texture and mouthwatering freshness. Delicious wine. Move over Puligny."  Andrew Caillard MW

The Reserve Bin A Chardonnay is sourced from a number of vineyards in Adelaide Hills, particularly those located in Birdwood, Balhannah, Piccadilly, Woodside, Morialta and Gumeracha. Most of the vineyards lie along a long stretch of varied, cool micro-climates along higher elevations in the hills. The wine centres specifically on 10 key vineyards, all owned by independent growers. Yields are kept low, at around three to four tonnes per hectare, to maximise flavour development and balance.

"Archetypical Adelaide Hills on the nose – ostensibly white stone fruits peach and nectarine. Sensitive batonnage of yeast lees has coaxed out a complexing nuttiness – assorted cashew, almond and Brazil nut with an ever so slight trace of nutmeg. Latent wafts of sulphide/struck match (almost) bring closure, until a beguiling mortar and pestle, (brine) ground oyster shell scent tip toes across the finish line. The palate unravels in the glass to reveal an enthralling and multi-dimensional package – line, depth, weight. A 'big' wine, certainly not shy in character! Big? Voluminous, yet controlled – restraint/precision wrestling with energy/tension. No losers. Hints of citrus and nashi pear with the reported 40% of new oak totally absorbed, barely noticeable. Checked? Yes, 40% new! Impressively well-integrated and complex!

Fruit is hand-picked into small bins and then whole-bunch pressed. Typically, the wine is naturally fermented in new and one-year-old tightly-grained French oak barriques and then allowed to go through 100 percent malolactic fermentation to achieve further integration of fruit and oak. Some parcels are purposely sulphite-influenced/fermented on solids with wild yeasts. At the end of fermentation, the wines are regularly stirred on their lees to bring more richness and depth of flavour. Once regarded as extreme winemaking practices, these techniques are now considered quite standard in achieving heightened complexity, flavours and texture. The 2017 Reserve Bin A Chardonnay was matured for eight months in French oak barriques (40% new)."  Penfolds

Erin Larkin and John Jens taste the Penfolds Reserve Bin A Chardonnay 2017

Erin Larkin and John Jens taste the Penfolds Reserve Bin A Chardonnay 2017
(12:45 into the video)

Expert reviews

"Pale gold. Slaty, flinty nectarine and grapefruit aromas with vanilla grilled nut notes. Supple and sweet with pink grapefruit, white apricot, nectarine fruits, fine slight al dente textures, attractive mid-palate creaminess/richness, underlying savoury and long fresh acidity. Still minerally and fresh. Drink now to 2038."  Penfolds Rewards of Patience tasting panel 2021 - 5/5 rating

"Hand-picked, wild fermentation and 100% mlf in French barriques (40% new). Easy to see how it swept all before it at the Sydney Wine Show '18, Superb gravitas, chiselled like a marble Roman statue. Amazing poise and length, acidity the key to the kingdom. Drink by 2027."  James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion - 98 points and Top 100 Wines of 2018 and Special Value Wine  ★ 

"In stasis.  Restrained, languid, classy, fine… This is a beauty.  There’s an ashy smoked character midpalate, the length draws out long past the fruit flavours… extremely tight and elegant… one for the ages.  It’s on another level. Tasted Jul 2020.Erin Larkin, erinlarkin.com.au - 98 points

"Pale colour. Highly evocative wine with intense grapefruit, white apricot flinty aromas with grilled nut complexity. Generous and creamy with grapefruit, apricot, white peach stone fruit flavours, light marzipan, flinty notes and underlying savoury oak complexity; all intertwined with fine lacy textures, crisp acidity and superb mineral length. This is absolutely at the cutting edge of Australian Chardonnay. An exquisite balance of fruit definition, texture and mouthwatering freshness. Delicious wine. Move over Puligny. 98 points Drink Now – 2030."  Andrew Caillard MW - 98 points

"A cooler vintage for the Adelaide Hills and one that has delivered much in the way of high-quality chardonnay. This has a very striking nose of peaches, nectarines, grapefruit pith and beeswax with nicely played, hazelnut-flavored oak. The reduction is appealingly flinty and delivers direct complexity. The palate is briny with succulent peach, nectarine and biscuit flavors and an array of citrus at its core. There's a long, clear burst of fine, powerful fruit at the finish. An excellent vintage for this wine. Drink or hold."  Nick Stock, JamesSuckling.com – 97 points 

"A sublime chardonnay and a great example of modern Australian chardonnay: superfine, intense, crystal-purity and subtle complexity which is building gradually as the wine slowly matures. Cool-year style. Sheer magic.  Drink: 20212032."  Huon Hooke, The Real Review - 97 points

"Penfolds whites are kicking goals and none more than this delight which just scored the major trophies at the recent Royal Sydney Wine Show. Whole bunch-pressed, part natural ferment, and amazing 40 per cent new oak that just gets soaked up and now adds a delightfully sophisticated oak/cashew/flint set of characters to ripe, white stone fruits so typical of Hills chardonnay. A wine worth spending quality time over to reveal futher exotic spices and delicate saline notes. Fabulous local hero chardonnay. Make the investment at least once."  Tony Love - 97 points

"Adelaide Hills. Superstar chardonnay. Eight months in oak, 40% new. It's a complex web we weave. Where the 311 is about dryness and length, this is about funk and flamboyance. It's dry too but it marshals a sizeable volume of flavour through the palate; this really sets the glass alight. Ginger, sulphides, white peach, oakspice, fabulous nectarine and toast. Undeniable quality.  Drink: 2019 - 2025."  Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front - 96 points

Awards

Trophy, Best Wine of Show - 2018 Royal Sydney Wine Show
Trophy, Best White Wine of Show - 2018 Royal Sydney Wine Show
Trophy, Best Chardonnay of Show - 2018 Royal Sydney Wine Show
Penfolds Rewards of Patience tasting panel 2021 - 5/5 rating
James Halliday Top 100 Wines of 2018 

Special Value Wine – Halliday Wine Companion  ★ 

Wine region map of South Australia

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.