The annual Penfolds release is here again, a moment in time that always makes us wonder where the last twelve months have gone! After last year’s all-time classic release, The Penfolds Collection 2023 has much to live up to. With the stunning 2021 vintage in South Australia providing a rock-solid backbone for the release there is a lot to get very, very excited about. We look at our Top Six wines of the release in a year which surprises and delights, including several ‘best-ever’ candidates. Here are the wines that stand out from the pack, the wines our team love and those that you should add to your cellar.

We present our Top Six wines of The Penfolds Collection 2023 in no particular order. Except for our first pick, that is always our number one. The 2019 Bin 95 Grange may forever live in the shadow of the eight-time 100 point scoring 2018. But ignore this release at your peril. The history of Penfolds Grange is littered with wines that lived in the shadows before emerging to take their place in the upper echelons of the best of Bin 95. Like the 1999 and 2009 before it, this is a ‘sleeper Grange’ that you should definitely not sleep on!

Never have we been closer to awarding the coveted No.1 spot to a Chardonnay but Grange has done it again by the smallest of margins. Could this be the finest set of chardonnays ever produced by Penfolds? Two of the finest ever produced in Australia? While much of the attention has gone to the Yattarna, like Erin Larkin of the Wine Advocate we are just as besotted with the Reserve Bin 22A from the Adelaide Hills. The competition for king of Australian chardonnay is strong but there's no doubt that this is one of the best wines from that noble variety released anywhere on earth this year. Allocations are limited, do all you can to add this future classic to your collection.

Every year the ‘Baby Grange’ is one of the most highly anticipated wines of the annual release. When an esteemed critic like Ken Gargett writes, ‘This is a truly great 389, perhaps the best ever’, this anticipation rises to a crescendo. But the best ever? The 2021 vintage provided the ideal canvas for Penfolds wine artisans to paint a vinous masterpiece. From South Australia’s finest vineyards, this wine carries on the ongoing theme: we will be talking about it in many decades to come. Don’t miss your chance to join a most delicious conversation.

A previous wine of the year winner in 2021, St Henri is back again with a strong vintage. This is a wine of history, of counterpoint, that tells the true story of vintage, sans adornments. Many of South Australia’s wine regions recorded their lowest yields in over forty years in 2020. Bad news for growers and their accountants but great news for concentration, depth and power in this year’s St Henri. The 2020 St Henri is a wine of pure, unadulterated pleasure that will reward patience in the cellar many times over.

The last two wines in our Top Six of The Penfolds Collection 2023 share a common thread. They challenge the classic Penfolds modus operandi by focusing on a single region and variety to create something truly special. The 2021 RWT combines the intense power of the very best Barossa Valley fruit with the finest French oak for a thoroughly modern and utterly delicious expression of Australian shiraz. A wine so good that critics Ned Goodwin MW, Huon Hooke and Ken Gargett rated it as good, or better, than the 2019 Grange. This is an all-timer, fill your boots.

Coonawarra and Cabernet Sauvignon. When the weather gods are kind you can make some of the best wines in the country. 2021 served up a stellar harvest and Penfolds delivered a super vintage. Chief Winemaker Peter Gago could not be more enamoured, claiming the 2021 and 2022 vintages in Coonawarra the best since 1990 and 1991. A huge claim, but in Peter we trust! The 2021 407 is so good that Dave Brookes, writing for Halliday’s Wine Companion, gave it the same score as the 2021 707. There could be no higher praise.

There you have it. Our Top Six wines of The Penfolds Collection 2023.