Grange and St Henri once were equals. But as Grange's fame grew, St Henri was eclipsed. Now St Henri is again re–emerging from the shadow of Grange. Matured in large, old vats that impart little or no oak character, St Henri is Shiraz au naturel. '…a wine of effortless, refined persistence', says Tyson Stelzer, '…with a silky, supple mouth feel and yet somehow still firm and enduring'. Says James Halliday: 'A great St Henri that will come into its own in a bare minimum of 10 years, and live long thereafter'.
Deep crimson. A beautiful St Henri vintage. Gorgeously seductive blackberry, mulberry, dark cherry, sweet plum aromas with dark chocolate, graphite, roasted walnut notes. Inky and sinuous palate with plentiful ripe blackberry, mulberry fruits, fine looseknit chalky tannins, superb mid-palate viscosity and underlying chinotto, roasted walnut notes. A standout vintage with superb middle-weight stature, fruit complexity and mineral length. Lovely to drink now but wait a few years to allow further development. Seal; cork 2025 – 2040 14.5%
99 points (July 2021)
A great St. Henri and, although multi-regional, this is very much a wine that speaks of the Barossa Valley, with aromas of ripe blackberries and red plums that are so fresh, together with tobacco, young-leather, earth, chocolate, coal-smoke and tarry accents. Effortless depth on the palate with summer berries, framed in fine, alabaster-like tannins that are underscored with discreet power. So long and captivating. A blend of Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Port Lincoln, Robe, Padthaway, Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills. Drink over the next decade or more.
99 points, JamesSuckling.com (July 2021)
St Henri is, for me, one of the least consistent wines in the annual Collection. By that I mean, sometimes it absolutely soars above those around it. Other times, it just doesn’t seem to be able to get off the ground to the extent that such a much-loved and famous wine should. This vintage is sourced from the Barossa, McLaren Vale, Padthaway, Port Lincoln, Robe, the Clare Valley and the Adelaide Hills. 12 months in those fifty plus year-old vats.
For me, this is the wine of the entire release. An extraordinarily good St Henri and I could not encourage winelovers to fill their cellars with this wine more strongly which will comfortably sit with 2010 and 2012. I have no doubt that in years to come, it will be considered as one of the greatest St Henri’s ever made. It really is that good.
Colour is black and purple. The aromas kick off with cloves and black olives. Dark chocolate, mulberries, cassis, leather, hints of tobacco leaves, truffles, beefstock and blackberries. Power and concentration. What is not to love? Right on form. Complex, balanced, very long and generous. Abundant silky tannins. This is perfectly structured. Balance is the key. The balance allows the wine to exhibit Audrey Hepburn elegance and Arnie Schwarzenegger power. This has decades ahead. A great St Henri.
99 points, Wine Pilot
Deep, bright purple/red colour, young for its age, and leaves a residue in the swirled glass. The bouquet is very rich and multi-layered, sweetly fruit-ripe and balancing spicy, earthy-terrestrial and dark-fruit characters superbly. The palate is very full-bodied, but softly plush and lushly fruited, the sooty and graphitey tannins leaving a long-lingering savoury impression. A lasting impression of great elegance. The tannins are fine, abundant and persistent, in harmony with the totality. A very complex and high-potential St Henri. (Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Port Lincoln, Robe, Padthaway, Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills. Aged 12 months in 50+ year-old oak vats)
97 points, The Real Review (June 2021)
Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Port Lincoln, Robe, Padthaway, Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills fruit. Matured 12 months in 50+yo vats. The effortless, unassuming self-assuredness of St Henri holds a unique and beloved place in the assemblage of Penfolds heroes, and 2018 marks a particularly special release. Accomplished, spicy, glossy black fruits of grand integrity unfold to magnificent effect in the glass, contrasting a fine-boned frame of rigid yet graceful, powder-fine tannins that carry a finish of long-lingering line and alluring appeal. I look forward to spectating from the sidelines as its fruit slowly unfurls over the decades to come. An adorable St Henri that exemplifies all that this label stands for.
97 points, Wine Companion (July 2021)
The 2018 St Henri Shiraz is a terrific effort, perhaps rivaling the top-flight wines under this label in 1976 and 1986. Remarkably fine and silky in texture yet simultaneously dense and concentrated, it showcases the amazing fruit harvested in 2018. Boysenberry, mulberry and mocha shadings all swirl together effortlessly in a whorl of full-bodied elegance, finishing long and effortless. Mainly Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale, it includes smaller amounts of fruit from Port Lincoln, Robe, Padthaway, Clare Valley and the Adelaide Hills, all aged 12 months in large old wooden vats.
97 points, Wine Advocate (July 2021)
Full bottle 1,520 g. Fruit from Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Port Lincoln, Robe, Padthaway, Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills. Matured for 12 months in >50-year-old vats.
Just penetrable purple with lots of blue tinges. Rich, ripe, complex nose that beckons you in to the glass. Amazingly there is some real freshness to this wine, even thought there are other elements to it that remind me of a liqueur. It's certainly a hit, with both immediate appeal and obvious potential for long ageing. Long and rather glorious without being too hot or weighed down by alcohol. No shortage of tannins but the fruit stands up to them.
17.5+ points, JancisRobinson.com (July 2021)
St. Henri is always welcoming, a warm and familiar flavour that resonates almost without fail. There’s a soft generosity to the 2018, no doubt due to a warm-hot summer across the seven South Australian regions that contribute fruit to the blend.
Black cherries and berries, spiced stewed plums, licorice, turned earth. Has an old Australian dry red feel to it that’s mighty attractive, a reminder when reds were aged in old oak, in this case we’re talking 12 months in 50-year-old oak vats. It’s a slow-paced wine, of violet, aniseed, prune, leather and earth. Savouriness builds, tannins come to the fore as the wine moves across the tongue towards a long finish. So, so easy to enjoy right now. Cellar if you can.
96 points, Wine Pilot
It’s a fruit-filled St Henri. It’s immediately impressive, which isn’t exactly the St Henri way, but no one’s complaining. Cocoa, coffee grounds, rich sweet plums, soy and sweet, aged meat. Licorice straps too, black, fresh and laid on. This is the kind of St Henri that you can drink young, it doesn’t need it’s normal ten-year rule, and yet it’s future will be brilliant. This is a St Henri to buy.
95+ points, The Wine Front (July 2021)
Dark, bright-rimmed violet color. A wild, highly complex bouquet evokes spice-tinged black/blue fruits, pipe tobacco, savory herbs, potpourri and olive paste. Weighty and yet energetic in style, offering mineral-driven bitter cherry, cassis, chewing tobacco and exotic spice flavors that turn sweeter through the back half. Round, slowly building tannins give framework to a very long, smoky finish that echoes the cherry and tobacco notes.
95 points, Vinous (July 2021)
A shift in emphasis for St Henri, with its gaze fixed on depth and seriousness rather than its familiar comforting embrace. With no new oak, it’s always a fruit-driven statement, but this time the rich, red earthy tones are clouded over by a deep well of purple and blue fruit flavours. As a result, it appears to have a broader frame than before, finishing a bit short for a wine of this stature, but still with lots of pleasing savoury grip on the finish.
93 points, David Sly, Decanter (June 2021)
South Australia is the driest state on the world’s driest continent. Covering almost 1 million (984 377km) square kilomteres, it represents 12.8% of the Australian land mass. Sweeping plains are intersected by a spine of relatively low lying ranges, the Mount Lofty/Flinders Ranges which extend through the heart of the State. Over 50% of the state is elevated at under 150 metres. The Great Artesian basin covers almost one-third of the State. The major river is the River Murray which lethargically makes its way into the Southern Ocean. This water mass has a moderating effect on climate, particularly in the southern regions of South Australia where most vines are planted.
Summers are generally hot and dry with relatively mild nights. Winters are cool. Rainfall occurs mostly during late autumn/winter (May, June, July, August). Drought and salinity are major concerns.
The principle wine regions in South Australia are; the Adelaide Hills, Barossa (comprising the Barossa and Eden Valleys), Clare Valley, Langhorne Creek, McLaren Vale, Padthaway, Coonawarra and the Riverland. Vineyard expansion has also extended to Wrattonbully, Mount Benson, Bordertown, Robe, Southern Fleurieu and the Flinders Ranges.
It is a tradition for many wine companies to make multi-district blends from South Australian fruit – the idea of house style taking precedence over regional definition. Penfolds pioneered this concept. The vagaries of vintage variation can be evened out by fruit selection, ensuring quality at a high level. However there is debate that this concept comes at the expense of the ‘soul’ of the wine. Penfolds Grange is probably the most famous multi-district blend and is an excellent counter-argument.
Andrew Caillard MW, Langton'sPenfolds
Penfolds is probably the most extraordinary of the world’s wine brands with an enviable reputation for quality at every price level. The original Penfold was an English doctor who, in 1844, planted grapes at Magill, now a suburb of Adelaide. However, it was not until the late 1940s that Penfolds began to forge a reputation for red wine.
The Penfolds house style emerged from a fortified wine producing culture and evolved as a winemaking philosophy which has had a profound effect on the entire Australian wine industry. Many of the techniques initially adopted to make Penfolds Grange would become part of the wider Penfolds winemaking culture. The number of techniques employed in the research and development of Penfolds wines is astonishing. Max Schubert and his team pioneered: major advances in yeast technology and paper chromatography; the understanding and use of pH in controlling bacterial spoilage; the use of headed down/submerged cap fermentation and the technique of rack and return; cold fermentation practices; the use of American oak as a maturation vessel and perhaps most critically, partial barrel fermentation. Nowadays, the use of American oak and barrel fermentation for instance is considered traditional Barossa winemaking practice!
Today, Penfolds house style embraces the concept of multi-regional blending, optimum fruit quality, the use of fine-grained American or French oak, barrel fermentation and maturation. Overall, the Penfolds style is about highly-defined fruit aromas, fruit sweetness, ripe tannins, richness, power and concentration. The number of iconic wines that have emerged from the Penfolds stable over the years is remarkable. Bin 389 a Cabernet Shiraz blend released in 1960 is now considered the quintessential Australian wine blend. Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz and Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz released in 1962 pre-empted the contemporary enthusiasm for regional definition by about 25 years. Improved vineyard management, site selection and winemaking brought about subsequent releases of Bin 707 and Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon. The Penfolds Wine Making Philosophy is the accumulation of more than half-a-century of knowledge and winemaking practice initiated by Max Schubert and subsequently refined by Don Ditter, John Duval and Peter Gago. Their collective commitment to multi-regional and vineyard blending contributed to a consistency of style and quality that has cemented Penfolds reputation as the foremost producer of premium age-worthy red wines in Australia.
