2001 Penfolds Bin 707

[Alex Bridgeman]

I wish I owned more Bin 707. I was a member of the UK Penfolds Club in the 1990s, when they were trying to break into the UK market and I bought quite a lot and drank most of it. This was my only remaining bottle of the 2001 vintage - and it's feckin' fabulous. Rich, complex, pencil lead and cedar yet with a wonderful sweetness to the bramble fruit. If you have lots of this, open a bottle now, but be assured it will improve a little from here and hold on its plateau for another 30 years.

I'm now down to my last two bottles of Bin 707.

[JacobH]

I appreciate this is probably a failure of mine but Penfolds is one of those companies that completely defeats me because of the number of wines they produce and their confusing names. Is the Bin 707 better than the Bin 94? Perhaps if I were a member of the Penfolds Club I would be able to tell...

[Doggett]

I appreciate this is probably a failure of mine but Penfolds is one of those companies that completely defeats me because of the number of wines they produce and their confusing names. Is the Bin 707 better than the Bin 94? Perhaps if I were a member of the Penfolds Club I would be able to tell...

Do you mean their Bin 95 aka Grange? If so then 707 would officially lower in the pecking order with Grange being the main release Flagship wine. The main difference is that Grange is a Shiraz based wine and Bin 707 a Cabernet Sauvignon dominated wine. So if your preference is for Cabernet Sauvignon, then 707 would be one of the best examples of an Australian produced one you could be lucky enough to enjoy.

[JacobH]

Sorry: that was a Private Eye-esque 94 rather than an actual product in their range!

My difficulty was that if I visit the Penfold’s site and narrow my options by looking at their Cab Sav wines (which are far less numerous than the Shiraz), it gives me the following: Max's Shiraz Cabernet; Bin 707; Bin 704; Bin 389; Bin 169 and a Bin 600. I can work out that the 704 is from California rather than Australia; the Bin 389 is a Cab Sav + Shiraz blend; and the Bin 600 is the same as the 389 but made in the States. But it has taken a bit of investigation to work out that the Max’s blend is a £20 bottle whereas the Bin 707 is a £450 one!

I appreciate that their range works for them but it just makes me hesitant since, if I see a bottle of the Bin 169 at £100 on a restaurant wine list, I have no real way of knowing whether I am being ripped off or undercharged!

(But then I suppose I am more used to the Portuguese making a tinto / branco, reserva, and grand reserva with anything with a silly name being under the tinto / branco!).

[MigSU]

Yes! Score one for the little guy!