TASTING NOTES:
A very fine and polished red with cherry, berry, chocolate and cedar aromas and flavors. Some spice and meat with hints of tea leaf. Some ash, too. Medium body and extremely refined texture, showing real balance and elegance. The tannins spread across the palate in a beautiful way. 78% cabernet sauvignon and 22% shiraz. Drink or hold.
-James Suckling, 93 pts.
This is a blend of 78% Napa Valley and Sonoma-grown Cabernet Sauvignon and 22% Shiraz from Paso Robles. IT is a smooth and earthy wine that offers flavors of leather, earth, iron and crushed rock cut against herbal accents.
-Wine Enthusiast, 93 pts.
This 2018 Bin 600 is the first release of this new Penfolds California label. It is a blend of two different regions and two different varieties: 78% Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley and 22% Shiraz from their vineyards in the Camatta Hills area of California Central Coast (about 15 miles east of Paso Robles). The interesting twist to the story behind this wine is that Block 10 in the Camatta Hills vineyard was planted in the late 1990s with Shiraz cuttings from two of Penfolds's most iconic South Australia vineyards: Magill Estate and Kalimna vineyard. This is the Shiraz component. "So," Peter Gago told me, "this has been a project in the making for a long time. We see this project as a continuation—making wine through a Penfolds lens, but made in California."
-Robert Parker, 90 pts.