5/5 Rating, Penfolds Rewards of Patience Tasting Panel (2021)
Medium-deep crimson. Fresh blackberry, cassis, black cherry, dark chocolate, ginger and five-spice aromas. Beautifully concentrated black cherry, cassis and liquorice flavours, ripe and dense chocolaty textures, rose garden and aniseed notes and pronounced indelible acidity. Finishes chalky firm and minerally. A great St Henri vintage. Peak drinking 2023 to 2045.
I never will wines to win 20s in my notes. They just happen without me questioning it. Perfect wines don't have to try too hard. For me, this is the finest young St. Henri I have ever tasted. It is phenomenal in every way. I cannot imagine how it could be bettered. I like it more than the fêted 1990 and 1971. It is 100% Shiraz and it draws on fruit from all corners of the State.
The clarity of message from start to finish is arresting. Gago picked out a few vineyards in the Adelaide Hills to try to explain just how this wine has benefited from the aromatic purity of the fruit from these parts – Waterfall Gully, Rostrevor and Paracombe. They add wistful spice and heavenly floral notes to the already majestic drive and intensity of fruit.
The tannins are awesome and you already know that the oak is old! It provides the wooden stage for this heavenly beauty to entrance your whole being. Dense damson and blueberry notes cavort – the whole experience is almost transcendental. Epic and thrilling. I couldn't spit it out. I couldn't whiplash it out of my mouth even if I was crashed into at speed while waiting for a red light to change. Weirdly it wasn't swallowed either – it was subsumed into my soul.
100 Points, Andrew Caillard MW
The finest vintage under this label since it was first released during the 1950s. With a history interlinked with the story of Grange, 2010 St Henri stands as the triumph of this year's Penfolds luxury release. The wine is amazingly expressive with deep colour, superb fruit complexity, voluminous richness and supple textures.
Dark chocolate, dark cherry, blackberry, mocha, roasted chestnut aromas are followed by a richly concentrated palate full of dark chocolate, paneforte flavours, generous sweet fruit notes and ripe loose-knit chocolaty tannins. It finishes graphite firm, long, and minerally. A gorgeous wine with all the hallmarks of long-term ageing potential.
