Having worked for decades with fruit from their Camatta Hills estate vineyard in Creston, southeast of Paso Robles, the Penfolds team more recently began to tap into the Napa Valley vineyard assets of Treasury Wine Estates, their parent company. Working with small blocks of fruit from some of Treasury’s top sites, adding some purchased from growers, Andrew Baldwin made this cabernet using the Penfolds winemaking protocols. It’s clean and friendly, the richness of its oak emboldening the red-currant brightness of flavor. It may not taste like a Penfolds wine—being that it grows in Napa Valley rather than South Australia—but it feels like a Penfolds wine in its fine textural integration, a cabernet of silken elegance. There’s a hint of orange zest to the acidity, the finish ready to refresh mousse truffée or a dark and wintry braise of duck legs in red wine and prunes.
95
Penfolds 2018 Napa Valley Bin 704 Cabernet Sauvignon
$70
Every week, our editors highlight a wine that intrigued them in our blind panel tastings, expanding on their tasting note in this space. These are entirely editorial choices; there are no paid placements. Subscribers can also access the original tasting note by searching here.
Joshua Greene is the editor and publisher of Wine & Spirits magazine.
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This story appears in the print issue of December 2021.
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