Penfolds Bin 149 Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 149 saw 100% new oak, 80% French and 20% American. The fruit here is really powerful and drives the wine through the front palate, middle and finish. It is concentrated and long and undeterred. This is seriously smart and shows precision and detail in both the winemaking and fruit. The three Californian wines form an equal step up each time of quality, concentration and complexity—as it should be, frankly—which makes for very satisfying drinking. It contains 10.9% Australian Cabernet Sauvignon (a blend of A1 grade Coonawarra and Barossa Valley). This will drink very well early, but it will also cellar gracefully for over a decade or more. My assessment of the blend in this instance is that the sweetness of the American and Australian fruit find simpatico with one another—the dovetail is seamless.

The experiment to forge a dual-hemisphere expression of Cabernet Sauvignon, with tightly wound Napa Valley fruit piqued by a 10.1% addition from various regions of South Australia, remains a curious work in progress. Its ambition appears to be forging a lean, energetic vision of separate forces, so we see a sweet 'n' sour tussle of red berries sliding on a silky palate until the blackberry grip of the Napa fruit takes hold, finishing much more powerfully that its svelte entry suggests.