Penfolds Magill Estate Shiraz 2014

Penfolds Magill Estate Adelaide Shiraz, Australia, 2014

Grape: 100% Shiraz, hand harvested, basket pressed, 18 months in French oak and American hogsheads

Producer Tasting Note:

COLOUR: Crimson throughout NOSE: Different… in an altogether appealing and alternative Shiraz sort of way! Fruits reconfigured - reappearing in a thinly-veiled guise of tomato paste, blood orange and cola. An aromatic offer transiently masquerading as a dried flower potpourri (violet and jonquils) - adding further intrigue (and more questions!). Oak revealed via a register of rosewood/sandalwood/cedar, with conspiring tanned leather and clove denying parentage.

PALATE: Succulent, fresh, lifted. A taste spool of sarsaparilla, citrus blood orange, cumquat, tangelo and persimmon. Yes, not simply ‘plummy’! Redcurranted, primarily red liquorice all-sorts flavours of yore, entwined by cucumber/cranberry-ish acidity and tamed tannins. An overlay of barrel-ferment and smokey char remind of matters Quercus harnessed beneath.

Critics' Tasting Notes:

"Coming from a very singular single vineyard located in the ‘burbs of Adelaide, I’m often drawn to the unique character of this wine, and the 2014 is no different. Deep garnet-purple coloured, the 2014 Shiraz Magill Estate has a seductive nose of pure, crushed black cherries, dark chocolate, balsamic, earth, garrigue and lavender. Medium-bodied, firm, structured and very fine, it has wonderful perfume, purity and length."

94+/100 points, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Advocate Issue 227

"Acidity 6.9 g/l, pH 3.52. 18 months in French oak (67% new) and American oak hogsheads (33% new). 'Easy wine to make because geographically determined' (unlike all the others that require blending and selection). Completes fermentation in barrel off skins.
Dark purple. Seductive but perhaps not the most obviously Australian. Racy and lively. Savoury. Long. Lots of excitement. Still quite tight. A little bit more winemaking than vineyard but it’s a winemaking tour de force."  Drink 2018-2034

18/20 points, Jancis Robinson, JancisRobinson.com, September 2016

Winemaking: The single vineyard Magill Estate Shiraz is intrinsically linked to Penfolds beginnings. Sourced from the original Magill Vineyard on the edge of Adelaide’s eastern suburbs (just eight kilometres from the city’s CBD), fruit is crushed, fermented and matured on-site at the original Penfolds Magill winery, established in 1844. First produced in 1983, Magill Estate Shiraz is an elegant, medium-weight style with velvety texture and fine tannins, matured in both French and American oak. It is a sleek, contemporary wine, yet crafted in the old fashioned way in the 170 year-old winery: hand-picked, vinified in open fermenters and then basket pressed.