2020 Penfolds, Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz, South Australia

Looking in on the 389 can be "'can be," she says, parenthetically) a good insight into what we can expect from the upcoming Grange. Now, they are very different wines, no question, however, stylistically they have much in common and the illumination into the season that birthed the wines in each instance. Here, the 2020 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz has consummate polish and sleek tannins, imbued as they are with graphite, black tea, licorice and resin. The fruit is pure and black and chewy... gorgeous wine. And it lives for decades. This has always been a collector's dream and continues so through this vintage. Highly recommended.

The 2020 Bin 389 is an iconic McLaren Vale, Barossa and Padthaway blend of Cabernet/Shiraz, made in a restrained but approachable style. It offers up bright, pure and primary Cabernet aromas of leafy cassis over a bed of blackberries, with reserved oak in good support. Shiraz then comes to the fore with plump peppery and mulberry flavours with delicious vitality and a backbone of ample sinewy tannins that support a lingering finish. A good but not great Bin 389.

51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Shiraz. A wine that’s apparently ‘very strictly allocated, as Bin 150 is. We can’t keep up with demand’, according to Gago. Fruit from McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley, Padthaway. 12 months in American oak hogsheads (33% new). TA 6.5 g/l, pH 3.61. Intense, ‘purple fruit’ nose. Sweet start, very winning, more flattering than some of the earlier-poured wines in this tasting. But all this fruit is cocooned inside a firm structure. (JR)

51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Shiraz. 12 months in American oak (33% new). Furry tannic grip, dense black fruit. The Shiraz is less obvious here than the percentage suggests – perhaps it manifests in body and weight more than fruit, which is very much cassis-dominant. (RH)