Reserve Bin 12A Penfolds Chardonnay 2012

Reserve Bin 12A Penfolds Chardonnay 2012

VINEYARD REGION Adelaide Hills

MATURATION 100% French oak barriques (53% new)

VINTAGE CONDITIONS The 2012 vintage produced above average rainfalls throughout the growing season with a mild to warm summer. During the ripening period, optimum temperatures prevailed right through to harvest. This, along with lower than average crops and great canopy growth, gave way for wonderful flavour development in what is deemed an exceptional white vintage.

COLOUR Pale straw with light green hue

NOSE Unmistakably Penfolds! Unashamedly Bin A! Initially, complex aromas of pronounced gun-smoke flintiness amid lightly roasted cashew nut and nougat. Ensuing white stone fruits – peach and nectarine, archetypal of Adelaide Hills, with a faint suggestion of lemon zest.

PALATE Fresh and vibrant bursts of citrus and white stone fruit precede a beguiling palate that boasts persistence and power whilst retaining a certain elegance. Wonderful length of flavour – biscuit, lemon cheesecake, rich and textural with subtle creaminess harmonising amid wet slate-like acidity. 

Penfolds Reserve Bin A Chardonnay has evolved into a wine that is now a distinctive, single region style in its own right, with a contemporary and distinctive Adelaide Hills Chardonnay persona. All fruit is hand-picked into small bins and then whole bunch pressed. The juice is incrementally fi lled to barrique directly from the press, and allowed to undergo a natural fermentation, sans inoculation. Every barrique is its own unique 225 litre ferment. Enhanced mouth feel and complexities are achieved by fermenting on solids, using a selective mix of new and aged French oak.

The wine undergoes 100% malolactic fermentation (all natural).