Penfolds - Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon - 2018

The grapes for this release were sourced from Padthaway, Coonawarra, Barossa, McLaren Vale, Wrattonbully and Robe. It spent 12 months in a combination of French and American oak, 21% of it new. It’s pure, it’s perfectly well balanced, it has a sweetness to its fruit and a creaminess to its feel but it’s tempered by tobacco and peppercorn and it purrs impressive through the finish. Crushed violets, meat, ripe blackcurrant, mint, red licorice notes and smoke-infused cream. It smells perfumed and inviting, appreciably so. I kept tossing up between 93 and 94 but really, there’s nothing holding this back from a gold medal. 94 Points Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front