Penfold’s special bin wines have a special significance and place among generations of Australian and international wine collectors. Deeply connected to Australian wine culture, each release or bottling has in some way represented a waypoint in the progress of the modern Australian wine industry.
The 1990 Bin 90a and 1990 Bin 920 are John Duval’s reprise of Max Schubert’s famous experimental opus.
95 Points James Halliday
The colour is almost impenetrable, so deep is it. There is amazingly lush, opulent plummy fruit on the bouquet; the palate has layer upon layer of dark plum, cassis and cherry fruit with equally layered soft and supple tannins running throughout. Will be ready long before Bin 90A, though nonetheless has a 20-year future.
95 Points Cambpell Mattinson
Massive strike of Coonawarra mint/eucalypt. It serves to both simplify the wine and polarise opinion. It is a great pity, because the wine has so much going for it: fresh, mulberried, leathery flavour, nuances of cigar box and dried herbs, galore-ious tannin that’s attached to the fruit – and indeed woven through it. Bright as a button. I’m keen to mark it down for all that eucalypt, and yet I love the wine. It is undeniable: Penfolds Bin 920 Cabernet Shiraz is a stellar wine.