Penfolds Bin 98 Quantum Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

A stunning follow-up to the inaugural 2018 Quantum release featuring superb cabernet sauvignon from Napa Valley and South Australia. Matured in American (80% new) and French oak (20% new) barriques for 16 months. Deep, impenetrable purple/crimson in the glass. Such a beautiful-smelling wine. Opulent blackberry, black cherry and satsuma plum meld with hints of Christmas cake, baking spices, panforte, vanillin oak, licorice, pressed flowers, air-dried meats, espresso and earth. For all its head-spinning fruit depth and purity, there is a sense of grace here, a savoury elegance that reveals itself slowly on the finish with a fine, kinetic tannin framework that shows a ferruginous sheen at its edge and a sails onwards for some time. There is a sense of Penfolds being on to something quite special with this wine, a wine whose structural poise bodes very well for a long future. Drink from: 2023. Drink by: 2053. Score – 98. (Dave Brookes, winecompanion.com.au, July 21, 2023)