Penfolds Bin A Chardonnay

Pale straw with a bright lemon rim. The bouquet shows lemon curd, mandarin and nashi pear with a thread of shortbread
and creamy custard/vanilla slice sans icing. A touch of spice (cardamom and caraway) and a subtle suggestion of ground almond, final impression signing off on a quartz-like minerality, and wet river-stone flintiness. The palate has an intriguing subtle (fluffy/pillowy) gentleness! Flavours of mandarin and yoghurt with a rich mid-palate. A glycerolic viscosity interlocks with the natural acidity inducing a mouth-watering juiciness and just a rasp of flint at the very end, adding length and zest.

Penfolds was founded by a young English doctor who migrated to one of his country's most distant colonies over a century and a half ago. Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold was born in 1811, the youngest of 11 children. He studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, graduating in 1838. In 1844 Dr Penfold and his wife Mary purchased the Mackgill estate, “comprising 500 acres of the choicest land.” By all accounts it was Mary Penfold who was responsible for the management and early winemaking responsibilities of the fledgling wine estate. Initially the wines - made from Grenache – were prescribed as tonic wines for anaemic patients and the famous Penfolds slogan ‘1844 to evermore’ harks back to its origins as a prescribed tonic. Penfolds and Co. – the newly formed partnership of Mary Penfold and her son-in-law Thomas Hyland and her cellar manager Joseph Gillard – now claimed to be producing over one-third of South Australia’s wine. Three distinct styles have underpinned the Penfolds winemaking philosophy: single vineyard or single block, single region or sub-region, and multi-region or multi-varietal blending. Penfolds single vineyard and single block wines are celebrated for their unique terroir and sense of place.