45 years after the first, and only release of Penfolds Bin 620 in 1966 - another icon Bin 620 blend arrives. It's a limited production wine that very few can afford...
Penfolds released the ultra-special and pricey Bin 620 for the second time ever - releasing a limited number of bottles from the exceptional 2008 harvest of three unique Coonawara vineyard parcels.
With only 900 cases made (a very small amount for a global wine titan like Penfolds) Singapore has 24 bottles of this 2k+ per bottle wine to sell.
For wine-lovers born after the only other Bin 620 release in 1966, this is a “once a lifetime” Cab-Shiraz cuvée. Penfolds plans to keep it “rare” and only produce the Bin 620 when Mother Nature provides the right stuff for the blend.
On hand for this auspicious occasion was one of Penfold’s red winemaker, Stephanie Dutton, who introduced the Bin 620 in the newly appointed “Grange Room” at Osia. Stephanie has worked at Penfolds since 2007 and was part of the 7 member team that created this special Bin 620 blend.
Aside from this prestigious work her other “claim to fame” as she puts it, is that she's had the privilege to taste every single vintage of Grange ever made as a member of the panel that reviews and writes the “Rewards of Patience” book published every 5 years.
“Every five years we open one of every bottle ever made and do a tasting of everything,” she says, “even wines in barrel - so I have sneak peak of what's coming.” Since collectors might only have one bottle of Grange in their cellar, Penfolds’ trained palates bear the heavy - but tasty - burden of compiling notes from this tasting to give drinkability guidelines to help consumers make informed judgments on when to open their bottles. “With the Grange and special Bins we’re building wines for longevity,” Stephanie explains. “This tasting is our chance to how the wines are developing – to see that the ‘53 and ’55, wines that are 60 years old now but are still looking good!”
The lead up to the Bin 620 tasting started with the Yattarna 2008 Chardonnay Penfold’s multi-regional white matriarch to the red patriarch, Grange. Currently the grape selections come more from the cooler climate Chardonnay growing regions. The Yattarna 2008 is 87% fruit from Tasmania’s Derwent Valley with the remaining 13% coming from Adelaide Hills. The blending philosophy behind the multi-regional selection is that the sum is greater than the parts. “To me, a multi-regional blend is like voices in a choir,” says Stephanie. “Together they are stronger than the individual voices singing alone.”
To warm our palates up for the emminent Bin 620 moment we tasted the Cellar Reserve 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, another one of Penfolds icon & luxury wines. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon aged in 100% French oak wine is one of Stephanie's top three favorites. It was born in the 1990's when Chief Winemaker Peter Gago set out to create a non-traditional style wine from Block 42 – some of the oldest Cab Sav vines in Australia planted in 1880.
Block 42 vines yield fruit with a distinct, concentrated character – almost a bit salty and savoury - Worchester sauce as Stephanie describes the flavour. I would have to agree. With 7 years of age the wine still drinks young with good acid freshness to hold up a very corpulent and plush fruit frame. At 14.5 % alcohol it is a big wine with a masculine character, super-fine tannins and attractive, dense black fruit flavours - super dense really.
Penfolds Bin 620 – Drum Roll Please….
The short answer to the question most people really want answered right away is, "yes - it was delicious."
The Bin 620 is a 51% Cab Sav / 49% Shiraz wine aged in 100% new oak (57% of it French oak) using 100% Coonawarra fruit sourced from three blocks in the same region: Blocks 5, 10 and 20. All three blocks have a good pedigree so to speak, as they are usually part of the Grange blend.
That these grapes are usually part of Grange begged the question – why is Bin 620 different than Grange or other special Bins like 707?
According to Stephanie – they didn’t set out looking for the parcels to make the Bin 620 – they discovered them during fermentation. “The bright concentrated hues are the first clue that the bin might be really special” says Stephanie.
The winemakers were surprised to find such amazing quality because 2008 was a mixed vintage. It was a warm year overall but being closer to the sea Coonawarra enjoyed warm, dry conditions rather than a heat wave. This was much like the ‘66 that had similar conditions and resulted in the only other release of Bin 620.
Theoretically Bin 620 is a wine that only emerges from an alignment of 5 variables: vintage conditions, house style, quality of the early ripening shiraz and late ripening cab sav and the Coonawarra. But in keeping with the “Bin” system the next release (whenever that may be) won’t necessarily come from the same parcels of grapes nor will it have a limit to the volume or price.
However there's a clear marketing focus for this wine. Just before tasting the Bin 620 we were treated to the screening of a highly stylized, epic film-like trailer with slide after slide of iconic pronouncements about Bin 620 narrated by a deep baritone voice. The tone and drama clearly conveyed Bin 620's gravitas of tradition, terroir, premium exclusivity and limited access to luxury: everything was subtitled in Chinese characters so not to be lost in translation!
Stephanie remarked that even though Bin 620 is stylistically very different from a First Growth Bordeaux, that the wine shares the same First Growth attributes of age-ability and finesse.
With a focus on selling to Chinese prestige-drinkers I couldn’t help but wonder how the Bin 620 might taste mixed with Coke - would it be better or worse than Coke blended with Château Lafite?
Only time will tell…
In Singapore Bin 620 will be available at Osia and at Joel Roblechon - the only outlets with any of the 24 bottles on the island - all priced north of 2K per bottle. In Hong Kong Bin 620 is available from Jebsen Fine Wines and Slurp Asia
Contributed by Sarah Mayo, TLN Editor
