2019 Penfolds RWT – Bin 798 Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia (750ml)

WINEMAKER’S NOTES:

RWT is made from fruit primarily selected for its aromatic qualities and plush texture. The result is a wine that helps to redefine Barossa shiraz at the highest quality level. RWT wines area built for the long haul, with the precision, concentration and balance to age for many years.

TASTING NOTES:

A strident RWT with a regional signature of tar and coal smoke to the ripe plums and blackberries. Such intense, ripe dark-plum and blackberry drive on powerful, deep-set tannins that run long through the finish. Contained power. Drink over the next decade.

– James Suckling, 96 pts.

Longtime readers will know of my personal fondness for this wine, going back nearly to its first vintage, the 1997. That said, the 2019 RWT Shiraz Bin 798 continues this wine’s impressive run, artfully combining hedonistic waves of mixed fruit with the balancing and structural effects of 18 months in French oak hogsheads (57% new, with the balance second-fill). Dark chocolate and vanilla notes join blackberries and plums on the concentrated, full-bodied palate, picking up hints of coffee, black olives and licorice on the long, silky-textured finish. This should easily age up to two decades.

– Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, 96 pts.

Rich and succulent, oozing with milk chocolate, salted caramel and kirsch flavors, with dense and toothsome tannins that are polished and refined. Blackberry and spiced plum flavors show clove, cumin and white pepper accents, with a sweet note of spearmint lingering on the long, expressive finish. Drink now through 2045.

– Wine Spectator, 96 pts.

Opaque violet. Deeply pitched cherry, blackcurrant, licorice and incense aromas are complemented by vanilla and woodsmoke flourishes. Shows outstanding clarity and power, offering densely packed black/blue fruit, candied violet, cola and spicecake qualities, along with a peppery nuance that builds with aeration. Chewy and energetic on the strikingly long, sappy finish, which features well-knit tannins, lingering vanilla and spice notes.

– Vinous, 95 pts.