2018 Penfolds, Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon, Australia

This has a very expressive and intense feel with assertive, 100% new American oak, sitting in a bold, spicy layer with vanilla, bourbon and espresso notes, across the blueberries, blackcurrants and boysenberries. The palate has a very taut yet luscious delivery of rich plum and cranberry flavors. There’s such long and taut tannin and oak is driving this into tightly compressed shape with roasted-coffee tones to the very intense and long, ripe plums and black cherries. Powerful, commanding cabernet. This is a great Bin 707. Attractive now, but best to wait until 2025.

In case readers weren't aware, Bin 707 is always aged in new American oak, like Grange. The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707 features plenty of vanilla on the nose, backed by concentrated cassis fruit. It's full-bodied, velvety and richly tannic, clearly meant to have two decades or more) of longevity. Marked by ripe fruit, a notable lack of herbaceousness, and lavish oak, it's out of step with current trends in Australian Cabernet Sauvignon, but it's no less delicious and all the more unique for that.

There were no issues for Cabernet in 2018 with evenness across both the warm and cool regions. Harvest was a doddle and it tastes like blending was a piece of cake, too. I say this because there are no wrinkles in this wine whatsoever. It is velvety, thrillingly balanced, typically broad-brush and loaded with awesome power. There is welcome, pliable juiciness at its core and this means that it will drink before the mighty 2016. But with everything in its perfect place, like the entire cast, lined up to take a bow on the stage after performing a heart-wrenching opera, what is the overriding theme of this wine? I used a word from my tasting note of Bin 707 to highlight the character of this entire collection and it is ‘polish’. This is a tremendously polished wine and it sums up everything remarkable about Bin 707. 19.5/20 Drink 2025 – 2050)

Super-sweet cassis fruit, plus expressive vanilla scent and high but ultra-fine tannins. There's lovely black-olive and engine-oil savouriness on the finish. Thick, dense, formidable.