Penfolds transforms Sydney’s Langham into Australia’s red centre
Sydney’s Langham hotel rarely gets upstaged when it comes to luxury but the recent Penfolds Rewards of Patience recorking clinic held at the hotel ensured it pretty much took a backseat.
Greeted at the door by stylish well-dressed Penfolds employees and led into a Penfolds bar takeover at the Langham with a string quartet playing in the corner and the hotel had become supplicant to what is one of Australia’s few true luxury international brands.
As for the recorking clinic, Penfolds are about the only wine brand in the world which conducts these once every five-year tastings around the globe where a select few can bring their older vintage Penfolds wines (15 years-old minimum) to be opened, sampled and have judgement past on whether the wine has held up.
Chances are though that unless your wine has been relatively carefully cellared you could be in for some disappointment. The Grange you’ve been keeping next to the dryer in the laundry is probably well gone after 15-years. Then again, it was probably gone after less than five years.
One of the beauties of the recorking clinic is it doesn’t have to be Grange anyway. Bring along your Kalimna Shiraz and St Henri but probably not a Rawson’s Retreat.
Yet while most people sitting in the Langham bar sipping Penfolds champagne or a Bin 311 Chardonnay or even a Bin 128 Shiraz were nervously waiting to have their wines assessed by Penfolds winemakers, Lunch Magazine was actually there to sample an extraordinary line-up of Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon.
The tasting led by Penfolds chief winemaker, Peter Gago promised to be one for the ages. Twelve stand out vintages of Bin 707 dating from 1976 to 2012 with the newly released 2023 making it a baker’s dozen.
First made in 1964, Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon is a classic Claret style multi-regional blend created in Penfolds distinctive house-style. It’s made in a very similar way to its slightly more august sibling Grange as it sits on skins for 4-5 days after the initial fruit is crushed. Then there’s fermentation in stainless steel tanks which is completed in new oak barrels before 16-18 months maturation in 300-litre American oak hogshead barrels.
It’s a rich, concentrated wine and first cab off the rank was the 1976. The descriptors of marzipan, roasted chestnut with chocolaty tannins and layers of cocoa and liquorice beautifully illustrate a wine still powering along in its 50th year. For me there was also slightly burnt toffee which threw the mind back to a mid-Spring primary school cake stall, a first crush and the deeply burning question of whether Year 4 me and Cathie Lennon were destined for each other?
It was an apt memory as Gago pointed out part of the majesty of any wine is its ability to evoke a time or place and how we perceive a certain bottle of wine is determined by these factors as well as our mood and the company in which we consume it.
On this day as we move slowly through 12 vintages, I’m drawn back to my own memories of each particular year and then transplanting them to the Langham Hotel restaurant surrounded by a dozen wine writers tasting and commenting on the evolution of each vintage.
The 1986 flew me back to high school as did the 1990, 1991, 2004 and 2012. This was odd as it would seem I spent an unnecessarily long time in secondary school. Then I realised it wasn’t the wine but the Langham’s food which gave definite stale school canteen sandwich vibes. I suddenly had visions of a devon and tomato sauce roll. Yes, unfortunately, the only off note was the food accompanying the wine.
Be that as it may, it was an extraordinary afternoon. For the record, the vintages following to 1976 included the 1986, 1990, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008.2010 and 2012. All distinctly different and all drawing different responses from everyone in the room.
My particular favourites were the 1986 and 2008. Both gorgeous wines at different stages of their journeys in the bottle. The 1986 at its peak and slowly drifting away while the 2008 was gorgeously balanced with mocha, coffee and liquorice flavours softened by a sweet subtle vanilla derived from the American oak casks.
The Bin 707 is not made every year and had an extended break from 1970 to 1975 with 2020 being the last time the fruit wasn’t quite up to scratch. Improved viticulture techniques and wider regional sourcing means those missed vintages are fewer as well as ensuring it remains a stalwart of Penfolds luxury range and one of Australia’s greatest wines.
Speaking of which, the tasting wasn’t over. Gago revealed a couple of surprises to finish. The 2022 Superblend 802A and 802B were two very different wines. Both Cabernet Shiraz blends but a different percentage of each varietal in each while the 802A was matured in American oak barrels while the 802B in French oak. Gorgeous wines although still young with the 802B looking the best at this point in time.
And too finish, a new chapter in the Penfolds story. A rare, aged Tawny Port with the average blended age of 50 years. As for the stopper on the rather impressive bottle – it’s made from aged port barrels. With rich, Christmas pudding, stewed figs and dark high cacao content chocolate flavours on the palate and at over $3000 a bottle it’s without doubt another premium addition to the much sought after luxury stable.
A stable continuing to evolve as well, with the brand having just purchased its fourth chateau in France to further expand a brand with roots now reaching into the terroir of the Napa Valley in the United States as well as China. Yet it remains quintessentially Australian. Gago and the winemaking team exude an unaffected and laidback air yet they bring an assuredness and a stylish elegant charm to every single Penfolds wine.
It’s something even a five-star luxury hotel could draw on.
