Penfolds Thomas Hyland Shiraz 2007

Being a big fan of Penfolds Products, this is my first tasting on this label.  None the less Penfolds never fail to deliver.

Colour is a vibrant rich red, attractive, with purple hues. Lifted and aromatic, the nose is perfumed and inviting, richly fragrant with dark stone fruits and chocolate, exotic spices and pepper notes integrating with an attractive vanilla bean character of background oak. Varietal spice of cinnamon courts assertive, youthful Shiraz fruits. An instantly appealing, alluringly drinkable wine, generously flavoured with lively red plum fruits and blackberry notes set against a fabric of ripe, rounded tannins and underlying savoury oak. A contemporary fruit-driven style with excellent depth and length, oak plays a supportive role, fruit, acidity and tannins command the lead, and hint of spices.  14.5% Alc

Winery: Penfolds

Country: Australia

Region: South

Varietal: Shiraz 

Vintage: 2007

Drink Date: up to 2013

Price: approx RM 120

Lovely Velvety Tannins on the Finish.  Aromas of Shiraz pepper and spice are completed by notes of cut plums, wild dark fruit, and Black Forest Cake.

Upper Reach Swan Valley Shiraz 2006

Upper Reach Winery

Upper Reach is a family owned and operated boutique winery, on the banks of Perth's Swan River. All our fruit is grown at our Baskerville property and the wine made on-site, in our state of the art winery. Our aim at Upper Reach is to produce wine of the highest quality from estate grown fruit, each wine reflecting both the vineyard and the particular vintage.

Upper Reach is one of the top Swan Valley wine producers, with an extensive list of wine show awards. Our success is a result of Derek's (the owner/ winemaker) hands-on involvement, both in the vineyard and in the winery. We believe that wine is one of life's essentials along with good food, family and friends.

Best Red Wine in Show: Swan Valley Show 2007
Best Table Wine: Swan Valley Show 2007
Best Swan Valley Wine: Swan Valley Show 2007
Gold Medal: Swan Valley Show 2007

Winery: Upper Reach

Country: Australia

Region: Swan Valley

Varietal: Shiraz

Vintage: 2006

Drink Date: up to 2020

Price: approx: RM 150

Dark crimson and vibrant purple hues.  Lifted aromas of blackberries, blueberries, and Vanilla Oak.  Hints of spice and sweet vanillin and cedary oak flavours that are complemented by soft powdery tannins.  14% Alc Screwcap

This is a fabulous wine, its drinking really well right now.  An old friend brought this to share, from Australia.  And it is the only bottle we have.  If you have one or a few, I'd advocate keeping it for another 5 years or so...the problem is its really nice now.  Decanter it for 30 minutes to an hour, will really bring our the best of this wine.  Fragrant floral on opening, medium bodied, and the bouquet returns on the finish.  

Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Yalumba is Australia's Oldest Family Owned Winery and highly regarded by Nick Stock in his the penguin good Australian wine guide 2010.  (Get The Book at www.readings.com.au)

Penguin Wine Award 2010: Winery of The Year

Awarded for all-round performance, Yalumba is a winery that has proved it can succeed in virtually any style and price point with an across the board track record that is the envy of the entire industry.  its influence on the position of Australian wine Internationally is one to be closely watched in the year ahead.  -Nick Stock

Notes on the Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 Y Series

Winery: Yalumba

Country: Australia

Region: South

Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2008

Drink Date: up to 2013

Price: approx: RM 65 

Deep dark crimson red colour with dark crimson hue displaying excellent depth.   Aromas of blackcurrant, dark cherry, spice and cedar.  Very fine grained slightly dry but balanced tannin structure. Aftertaste of spice, tobacco, hints of cinnamon and blackcurrant.  13.5% Alc Screwcap

This is a short-medium bodied wine, ready to enjoy now.  Go grab one, and try.  Let me know.  

The Penfolds Story Continue...

1900s-


Expansion


Fortified wine production dominated the industry throughout the first part of the 1900s and Penfolds gained a strong reputation for its fortified wines during the 1920s and ‘30s. Between the world wars the market for fine table wine in Australia was extremely limited. Penfolds did, however, produce an ‘Italian Red’ for Italian migrants working the cane fields of Queensland.

In 1943, Penfolds acquired the highly regarded and valuable Auldana Vineyard and winery – adjacent to the Magill vineyard. In 1945, Penfolds purchased the Kalimna Vineyard in the Barossa Valley – at this time the largest vineyard in South Australia. By the late 1940s Penfolds had acquired or planted vineyards in McLaren Vale, Griffith, the Hunter Valley and Minchinbury.

Yalumba Shiraz Viognier 2008

Yalumba is Australia's Oldest Family Owned Winery and highly regarded by Nick Stock in his the penguin good Australian wine guide 2010.  (Get The Book at www.readings.com.au)

Penguin Wine Award 2010: Winery of The Year

Awarded for all-round performance, Yalumba is a winery that has proved it can succeed in virtually any style and price point with an across the board track record that is the envy of the entire industry.  its influence on the position of Australian wine Internationally is one to be closely watched in the year ahead.  -Nick Stock

I have recently tasted their affordable Y Series and my notes below

Winery: Yalumba

Country: Australia

Region: South

Varietal: Shiraz Viognier

Vintage: 2008

Drink Date: up to 2013

Price: approx: RM 65 

Nice Bright Smooth Purple.  Light-Medium.  Bit of Sweet Cinnamons and Violets.  Soft.  Fragrant Bouquet with wild Berries in the beginning and finishing with Blackcurrant.  13.5% Alc 

This is an easy drinking and great table wine.  Pretty Straight forward.  Something that you can appreciate the very moment you open and enter your mouth.  Take some time to smell the fragrant and leave it in your mouth and slowly swallowing it while letting the palate take over your tongue.  Recommended proper cellaring and to drink in 2011 again.

Deep Woods Estate Block 7 Shiraz Margaret River 2008

2009 Perth Royal Wine Show, Most Successful WA Exhibitor under 300T Trophy
2009 Perth Royal Wine Show, Dry Red, Shiraz GOLD Medal

The Shiraz was picked from Block 7 which is a single block of the original vines planted on the estate in 1987

Winery: Deep Woods Estate

Country: Australia

Region: Margaret River (South West)

Varietal: Shiraz

Vintage: 2008

Drink Date: up to 2018

Price: approx: RM 100

Deep crimson red in colour with brilliant purple hues.  Dry.  Medium to Full Bodied.  Blueberries, Blackberries, and Violets.  Earthly.  Oak.  Balance. 14% Alc

Tasted on 8th October 2010.  Venturing into South West Wine, particularly Margaret River apart from the normal South Australian Wine.  I find wine from this region has got a very strong earthly spice flavour particularly the Shiraz which makes it intriguing.  Definitely the style is very different.  With aromatic bouquet buzzing out on opening.  Should try some wines from this region.  I have a few more to introduce.  But make sure you check out www.sanawine.com which is opening in the 1st Quarter 2011

Penfolds St. Henri 2005

#24 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2009

This is my second tasting of the Penfolds St. Henri 2005, the other time during the 1st Quarter of 2010, still the same brilliant wine I love so much.  I have also tasted the 2004 Vintage this year, but this note is about the 2005 Vintage I just opened today 06 October 2010


Winery: Penfolds

Country: Australia

Region: South

Varietal: Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2005

Drink Date: up to 2020

Price: approx RM 239

Dark Purple and Deep.  Nose is Floral, Perfume, and Fresh.  Fragrant Smell.  Blackcurrant and Lemon.  Lacy and Silky.  Sexy.  Long.  Balance.  14% Alc.

The moment it enters your mouth, the flavour just takes off.  Long and Alive.  Certainly will improve with proper cellaring.  A wine that is worth keeping.  

There’s also 10% Cabernet this year too, which is nice to see.

Penfolds St. Henri is a counterpoint to Penfolds Grange. St. Henri is a highly successful, alternative expression of Shiraz. It is unusual among high quality Australian red wines as it does not rely on new oak. It was created in the mid-1950s (first commercial vintage 1957) and gained a new lease of life in the 1990s as its quality and distinctive style became better understood.

Penfolds St. Henri is rich and plush when young and gains soft, earthy, mocha-like characters as it ages. It is matured in old, 1460-litre vats that allow the wine to develop, but imparting no oak character. The focal point for St. Henri is Shiraz.

The Penfolds Story Continue...

1870

Early Success

By 1870 the Grange vineyard comprised over 60 acres with several different grape varieties including grenache, verdelho, mataro (mourvèdre), frontignac and pedro ximenez. The estate was producing both sweet and dry red wine and white table wines, with a growing market in the eastern Australian colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. A catalogue from 1889 lists wines from the Grange and Magill vineyards as Mataro, Grenache, Constantia, Grange Port, Frontignac, Grange Tawny, Pedro Ximenes, Tokay, Madeira, Grange Sherry and Muscadine. The catalogue adds: “We have also light red and white dinner wines of claret and riesling types, suitable for use in Clubs.”

Penfolds and Co. – the newly formed partnership of Mary Penfold and her son-in-law Thomas Hyland and her cellar manager Joseph Gillard – now claimed to be producing over one-third of South Australia’s wine. Mary Penfold passed away in 1896 after a remarkable contribution to Australia’s wine industry.

Penfolds Rawson's Retreat Shiraz Cabernet 2008

I thought it is proper to introduce undoubtedly one of Australia's and World's Top Wine Companies in terms of quality, product range and exports.  The consistency of the quality of the red wines and their value for money has long been recognized worldwide.

Winery: Penfolds

Country: Australia

Region: South

Varietal: Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2008

Drink Date: up to 2013

Price: approx RM 50

Dark Ruby.  Medium Bodied.  Ripe Fruits.  Spices.  Raspberries.  Strawberries.  Cocoa.  Sweet Fruited and Easy Drinking.  Screwcap.  13% Alc

First tasted in Chinese New Year 2009 and subsequently today 04/10/10, matured and improved since then.

Good and Easy Red Wine for everyday drinking at Seafood Restaurant, Home, or House Party.  Definitely One Great Wine for Wedding (if the price is OK).  This is a must try and one to start of with for new wine lover.  Should be available in all major Supermarkets in Malaysia.  A newer vintage should be available at the new www.sanawine.com in first quarter 2011

Penfolds

www.penfolds.com


About Penfolds

Australia’s winemaking history of less than two hundred years is brief by European measures though, like Europe, punctuated by periods of extreme success and difficult times. From the earliest winemaking days Penfolds has figured prominently and few would argue the importance of Penfolds’ influence on Australia’s winemaking psyche.

Without the influence of Penfolds the modern Australian wine industry would look very different indeed. Sitting comfortably outside of fad and fashion, Penfolds has taken Australian wine to the world on a grand stage and forged a reputation for quality that is without peer.

Penfolds’ reputation for making wines of provenance and cellaring potential might suggest a mantle of tradition and formality is the preferred attire of a company with so much history to defend. But to label Penfolds as simply an established and conventional winemaker, would be to confuse tradition with consideration and to overlook the innovative spirit that has driven Penfolds since its foundation, and continues to find expression in modern times.

If there is anything traditional about Penfolds, it is the practice of constantly reviewing the wines it already does well, and continuously evolving and refining styles as vineyards mature and access to ever older and more varied vineyard sites improves.

1844 In The Beginning

Penfolds was founded by a young English doctor who migrated to one of his country's most distant colonies over a century and a half ago. Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold was born in 1811, the youngest of 11 children. He studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, graduating in 1838.

In 1844 Dr Penfold and his wife Mary purchased the Mackgill estate, “comprising 500 acres of the choicest land.” By all accounts it was Mary Penfold who was responsible for the management and early winemaking responsibilities of the fledgling wine estate. Initially the wines - made from grenache – were prescribed as tonic wines for anaemic patients and the famous Penfolds slogan ‘1844 to evermore’ harks back to its origins as a prescribed tonic.

Wine ABC, There is Always A Wine and Grape For You

Blog: Wine ABC has been set up to introduce wine that I have tasted, and as an album for memory.  There is always a wine and grape for you...