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.

There are many choices in the Penfolds Barossa Valley range but we have selected
three outstanding wines - Magill Estate Shiraz, Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz and Bin
798 Shiraz (previously RWT).

THE WINE
Penfolds Bin 798 Shiraz was first released in 1997 under the RWT (Red Winemaking
Trials) label, and now labelled RWT Bin 798, is a blend of Syrah from several
Barossa vineyards. This instils the richness of texture and opulent fruit that
is spiced by French rather than the signature American oak. Where many Penfolds
reds show some brawn and power, Bin 798 shows richness and fleshiness.

INFORMATION
Type:RedVintage:2008
Country:AustraliaRegion:South AustraliaSub region:Barossa ValleyGrape:100%
ShirazStyle:Rich and IntenseSweetness:DryABV:14.5%Drinking window:2014 - 2030
Size: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.