THE PRODUCER
Penfolds history is much more than the story of Grange. In 1844 Dr Christopher
and Mary Penfold planted vine cuttings, they had brought from Europe, at Magill
Estate in South Australia. Through innovation and hard work, Penfolds was South
Australia’s largest winery by the early twentieth century, so winemaker Max
Schubert walked into a successful operation in 1948. His experiments with
different blends of wines and the use of American oak led to the creation of
wines which were ground-breaking. So much so that the Grange project, started in
1951, was officially shelved until several years later, although the wines were
made and stored in secret until it was officially re-instated in 1960.

Around the same time the “Bin” concept started. Simply named after their storage
bin, wines of different source and blend were given bin numbers on release. Some
of these became continual releases to this day, others had short runs or were
only released in exceptional years. Several of these individual Bin wines – such
as 60A, 620, 42, etc. – are now wines of legendary status.

Some of the greatest red wines of the 1950s and 60s in Australia were made by
blending wines from different areas to create a consistent style. Penfolds has
continued this with many of their range … rich, sumptuous wines mostly with the
spicing of American oak.  Penfolds has evolved its styles over the years and now
produce an exemplary range of blended and specific regional shiraz styles.

However, Penfolds is also and rightly famous for its Cabernet Sauvignon,
produced from its various holdings in South Australia. The first of its numbered
bin range was the Bin 707 (yes named after the plane) which was first produced
in 1964 but the wines saw an overall uplift in consistent quality (and price)
into the 2000s. They are now consistently high quality cabernets, but at a
price.

A step up in quality (and price) is the occasionally produced, and outstanding,
Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon.  However, for us the star of the (Penfolds
Cabernet) show is their Bin 169 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, a relative
newcomer, but one which delivers outstanding quality and value.

THE WINE
Introduced in 2008 as a modern Cabernet Sauvignon addition to the Penfold’s
range and a ‘regional’ stablemate to the multi-regional Bin 707. Bin 169 is
unmistakeably from Coonawarra and is in fact sourced from Penfold winemaker Max
Schubert’s original 1973 Bin 169 Coonawarra Cabernet. Redolent of abundant ripe
yet crunchy red berries and cassis and with a stern mineral core, Bin 169
matures for 18 months in French oak hogsheads of which 50% are new.

INFORMATION
Type:RedVintage:2018Country:Australia
Region:South Australia
Sub region:CoonawarraGrape:100% Cabernet SauvignonStyle:Rich & IntenseSweetness:
DryABV:14.5%Drinking window:2023 - 2024Size:750mlFood match:Beef and venison


CRITICS SCORES
We choose our wines based on a range of criteria(seehow we choose our wines)of
which critic scores is justone. Rather than simply highlight the best score to
promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided
by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do
not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more
weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores
like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a92/100average critic score or
better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a
high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we
offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the
market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and
representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide
to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add
individual critic scores to our website in the future.