2020 Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz
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Tasting notes
Deep magenta. Highly expressive black and blue fruit preserve, incense, vanilla and cola aromas, plus smoky oak and spice notes in the background. Palate-staining kirsch, mulberry, vanilla and fruitcake flavors are braced by a spine of smoky minerality. Gains weight with air while retaining verve, and finishes appealingly sweet and very long, with polished tannins adding framework and final grip. Raised in a blend of French and American oak barrels.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Aged 12 months in American (24% new) and French (23% new) oak. This has the juice and flesh missing from the Bin 28. Incredibly tannic, and high acid. Built to last, and the structure is very youthful. (RH)
The Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz has always been a dense, concentrated and muscly wine. Then imagine the overlay of a warm and dry vintage (for some context—26 days in a row over 35 degrees Celsius), the second in a string of warm, dry vintages. Yields were drastically down, up to 70% in some places, and the power of the reds in particular are a force to be reckoned with. So here, to 2020 Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz: savory, spicy tannins form a casing around the fruit, the oak supporting from the back. There are notes of dark blackberry, blood plum, Nag Champa (clove tobacco), pink peppercorns and saturated fruit. There's a side of deli meat in there, too. If you can put aside the density and weight of the wine (impressive), the fruit is pure and beautiful. 2020 may have been responsible for brooding and concentrated wines, but I have found much to love in this year. This included. Sensational.
Peter Gago has his own vineyard in the Marananga district of Barossa. He described this as relegated Grange material. ‘All the Grange growers are centred round Marananga.’ 12 months in American (24% new) and French oak (23% new) hogsheads and puncheons. TA 7.6 g/l, pH 3.64. French and US oak give a rather sophisticated, complex nose. Peppery dry finish after quite a bit of juicy blackberry fruit. Hint of liquorice too. Not yet ready but very promising. (JR)
About the producer
Penfolds is Australia’s most famous wine producer, known best for their iconic top wine, Grange. First produced commercially in 1952, Grange has since gone on to become one of the world’s most famous fine wines. In 2001, the wine was listed as an Australian heritage icon.