2004 Bin 60A Cabernet Shiraz

This youthful, elemental wine shows a miraculous overlapping of aromas and flavours. The regional characters of both Coonawarra and the Barossa Valley are finely poised …

The highly perfumed, chamomile/violet/mocha aromas, immense concentration, savoury flavours and classically structured palate are in superb balance.

This beautifully defined, cross-regional/varietal with its meaty nuanced and fine-grained tannins will continue to evolve in the cellar for decades.

Peter Gago, Penfolds chief winemaker

99+/100

The release of the 2004 Bin 60A following the epic 1962 Bin 60A is old news now, but the wine was looking very fine indeed when I tasted it so I thought I'd add a note.

Blended of 56% Coonawarra Cabernet from Block 20 and 44% Barossa Shiraz from Koonunga Hill Block 56G and Kalimna Blocks 4 and 14, the wine was matured in 100% new American oak hogsheads for 13 months.

Very deep purple-black in color, it offers restrained notes of game, smoked meat, earth, blackberry and black currant liqueurs, yeast, marmite-toast plus whiffs of dried lavender, cedar and bark.

Very crisp, very tight and very firm, this taut medium-bodied wine is still all structure at this stage, going very long and earthy in the finish. Give it time and consider broaching it from 2014.

It should drink well into the 2030s if not beyond.

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate #192, December 2010