Sorry this is not a winning ticket," announced the self-scan machine at the Lotto counter. "Story of my life," I muttered as I headed into the supermarket for a cooked chook and some coleslaw and maybe a $15 chardonnay to go with it.
Sadly, I wouldn't be buying that $830 bottle of 2008 Penfolds Grange, the one that earned a perfect 100 point score in the world's most influential wine journal. The one described as smelling like tea-smoke, liquorice, cola, soy and hoisin with ferric [iron] influences. The one described as being "captivatingly forceful" on the palate and having "self-saucing chocolate pudding richness and blackberry, elderberry fruits".
I was lucky enough to taste a tiny, splishy-splashy of that 2008 Grange Shiraz at a swanky dinner a few weeks ago and it was an intense, yet sublime wine. My (much less eloquent) descriptors were more along the lines of it being a whopper of a wine with meat on its bones and leaving a powerful, fruity impression on the finish. As for "ferric influences", it sure had them. It was magical stuff but, like I said, sadly I had only a mouthful.
Fans of only the finest Australian cabernets will no doubt have heard that the 2010 Penfolds Bin 707 has set the standard for all future versions. "A benchmark vintage" for the whole of South Australia, the tasting notes say; meaning "creme de cassis effortlessly cascades from nose to palate, collecting raspberry and dark cherry fruits in passage" apparently.
At the same swish dinner party I was able to snaffle a decent slug of this wine in my glass before the bottle was hoisted away and, despite not feeling much in the way of cascading cassis, I can vouch for it having incredible cocoa and black fruit concentration.
There's an explosion of ripe plum and baked beetroot flavour, real velvet fist-in-iron-glove material. However, at $347 a bottle - it's definitely one for the Christmas list. But I have been holding on to some of what's known as "Baby Grange", the Penfolds Bin 389, which up until recently was a much more palatable $40ish a bottle. Always cabernet-dominant, the Bin 389 is crafted from fruit sourced from Coonawarra, Padthaway, McLaren Vale, Barossa and Robe, and I had bottles from 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
The other night I was stupid enough to watch a documentary on starving polar bears, which made me really sad and despondent. "Why don't you open a nice bottle of wine?" my husband said. "That'll cheer you up." So I opened all four. They were majestic animals dying of hunger, okay?
2005 Penfolds Bin 389
Developing aromas of sweet smoke, roasted figs, cocoa and black olives, which open up to warming, meaty, prune-like flavours and tannins which are enveloping, cuddly and, overall, the wine is drinking very nicely.
2008 Penfolds Bin 389
Really speaks of just how great that vintage was for both cabernet and shiraz in South Australia. Sealed with a screwcap, it's inky magenta-black and oozes liquorice, dark cocoa, espresso and pepper on the nose.
On the palate it's absolutely outstanding with a burst of fresh berry and beetroot and shows a pine and dried herb note before finishing in a beautifully succulent way. The team at Penfolds believes it has decades of life in it yet - I think they could be right.
2009 Penfolds Bin 389
This is where things are stepped up a notch in more ways than one. For starters they increased the price by an eye-popping $30 to $70 - so I was expecting something pretty snazzy and it didn't disappoint. Youthful raspberry, sweet spices and a delicious vibrancy pervade this wine.
In the mouth it's silky yet the tannins grip you round the back teeth and don't give up in a hurry. It's a wine with power and presence and will reward long-term cellaring (meaning I probably shouldn't have opened it - but oh well).
2010 Penfolds Bin 389
Looks so glossy, inky and crimson-black. It looks like a wine that's going to take you on, a wine that's going into battle, challenging you to drink it if you dare. It's so young and so tightly coiled, yet you'll find aromas of cassia bark, vanilla, plum and chocolate alongside intense blackberry, liquorice and spicy flavours, fresh acidity and sinewy tannins.
This is a serious wine, and I'm determined to buy another bottle to store away for a serious amount of time - and I will store it somewhere far away from starving animals on TV.